A Ghost from the Past
by Sparky75
Summary: When Harry is called to a meeting with Richard Dolby he doesn't know what to expect and what he hears sends his world reeling. Set towards the latter part of series 6 and early series 7.
1. Chapter 1

This story is set towards the end of s6 though some of the timeframes might be a little out of whack. I couldn't bring myself to watch it again so apologies for any mistakes. This chapter is more a setup for the story, so I hope you enjoy and more to come, hopefully next weekend...

xxx

Harry glanced out of the window of the seventh floor of Thames House as the monthly catch-up of all Section Heads with the DG came to a close. Two hours of tedium the first Tuesday afternoon of the month at 2.00pm on the dot, it was the only time he came close to wishing some catastrophe would happen, nothing major but some minor disturbance or threat that could be considered a suitable reason for cancelling. He let his mind drift as he considered what else he still had to do that afternoon with threats coming through from Nottingham and Inverness and GCHQ flagging some suspicious chatter which he'd asked Malcolm to look into a little closer. He also had the ongoing issue with Ad...

"Sorry Harry old boy," Harry jerked awake quickly as he heard his name mentioned, "not boring you are we?"

"Not at all Dickie," he replied smoothly thanking what ever deity had given him the gift of always keeping one ear open, "just thinking about your marvellous plan to hold a 'Security Service' open day for potential new recruits."

"Oh," Richard Dolby looked at him slightly suspiciously, he'd obviously had been listening, but Dolby was equally sure that Harry Pearce was the last person in MI5 who would describe an Open Day as a marvellous idea; he suspected, quite rightly, that should such a day ever occur, then offers of assistance from Section D would be in very short supply.

"Yes, can't see anything wrong with that idea at all," Harry continued, "I always thought the most ridiculous thing about the Secret Services, is the actual secrecy. Let's get all our spies and secrets out on display for the world and their wife to see." The sarcasm in his tone was amplified by the look of innocence on his face.

Dolby lifted his eyebrows while simultaneously pursing his lips, "that's not exactly what I had in mind Harry as you well know." He glanced round the table, at least half the other Section Heads were trying and failing to curtail smiles, while the others had a long suffering look on their face, Harry was looked up to by some and seen as a dinosaur by others, "and as you're also aware, it's the Security Services nowadays, not the Secret Service."

Harry raised an eyebrow but said nothing, this Open Day like so many other things they discussed in these meetings would likely come to nothing. "If you say so Dickie..." he said at length.

Dolby stared at him hard for a few seconds before deciding it wasn't worth the hassle and turned around to address the rest of the group. "Well on that note gentleman, that's the end of the meeting."

"And ladies," Harry injected quickly, nodding his head towards Sarah Millingthorpe, the Head of Section F who was sat with a look of controlled amusement on her face.

"And ladies of course." Dolby continued with a practiced smile. "Just a figure of speech Harry. Now unless any one else has anything to say..." He paused as he glanced round the room to be met with silence, "well then, if you could all ensure that your budget proposals for the next financial year are with me by the 18th as we discussed earlier, then I bid you all good day."

Harry pushed his chair back along with the rest of the table, it's like the school bell has gone he thought wryly, as he did every time he was in one of these meetings, so desperate was everyone to get out.

"Ah, Harry, before you go." Dolby's voice carried above the melee of everyone trying to leave the office as one.

Harry looked up, "yes Dickie?"

"If I might have a quick word?"

"Now?"

"If you've got the time... otherwise we can schedule another meeting for tomorrow?" Dolby looked at him with an slightly smug expression on his face knowing he had him trapped.

Harry checked his watch quickly, it was quarter to five, and five minutes now was a much better prospect then fifteen minutes tomorrow. "I've got a few minutes," he said shortly.

Dolby nodded and moved over to his desk and motioned for Harry to join him as the room emptied and the door closed leaving them alone. "Whiskey?" He offered as he stood to pour himself one.

"Will I need it?" Harry asked dryly, "look Dickie, if this is about my reaction to the Open Day then..."

"This could have been you in this seat Harry." Dolby cut across Harry as he handed him a very generous measure and ignored what Harry had been saying. "If you played the game a little more, worked with the politicians rather than continuously railing against them."

"That's rather more your forte than mine." Harry replied, "besides, I like being nearer the action."

"To each his own," Dolby sat down and took a large mouthful of his drink, "and no Harry, this isn't about anything that was said in that meeting, either by you or anyone else, this is something else, something altogether more delicate."

Harry sat up in his chair, his senses suddenly buzzing, "so what is it?"

Dolby sat forward, "about two months ago we had a walk-in downstairs, a lady by the name of Janet Oliver, does the name ring any bells?"

Harry shook his head, "never heard of her..." He took a sip of his drink, racking his brains trying to work out what was suddenly troubling him, "should I have?"

"There was a possibility the name would ring some bells with you," Dolby admitted, "but I wasn't sure."

"And yet her name rang a bell with you?" Harry looked at him carefully, not yet knowing what this was about. :We have multiple walk-ins a day Dickie, why did this one make it's way to you?"

"Her name was flagged."

Harry looked at him curiously, "So what, hundreds if not thousands of names are flagged. They still rarely get to the attention of the Head of MI5."

Dolby nodded, "well yes, you're right of course, but this one we never really expected to hear from and she is somewhat of a special case."

"This still isn't making much sense to me." Harry said looking slightly perplexed, his brain trying to recall if the name Janet Oliver was lost somewhere within there.

Dolby cleared his throat before standing and making his way to look out of the large window with its commanding views of the Thames. "It's about the female officer from your section," he turned round to face Harry, "the one who faked her own death and went into exile."

"Ros." Harry looked incredulous, "but that only happened last week, how the hell could anyon..." The blood suddenly drained from his face as he noticed Dolby slowly shaking his head.

"Not Ros, Harry. The other one."

"Ruth," Harry spoke her name softly, "Ruth Evershed"

Dolby nodded, "yes that's her." He noticed Harry's suddenly pale demeanour and moved quickly to refill his glass.

Harry looked up, "what's this woman got to do with Ruth... and how the hell did you know her death had been faked anyway?"

"I'm the DG Harry, it's my job to know. I know you just think I sit up here playing at politics, but you forget that I'm every bit as much as a spy as you are."

Harry inclined his head towards him in acknowledgement. "Does anyone else know?"

Dolby paused for a moment thinking. "Not within Five," was his somewhat evasive answer, "that's why Janet Oliver's name was flagged and why I was made aware of it as soon as she came in?"

Harry took a large mouthful of his drink. He was suddenly all at sea, whatever he had expected this chat to be about, this hadn't even been on the far horizon. "But who is she?" Harry cast his mind back to the few awful days that had taken place around 15 months ago that he'd tried and failed to blank out completely, "is she related to Maudsley?"

"No," Dolby returned to his seat again, "she's the one that came forward as a witness, the one who said she'd seen Ruth push Maudsley onto the track at the station."

Harry slumped back in his chair and leant his head back to face the ceiling. "I never knew her name," he mused quietly, "it never seemed important."

Dolby smiled sympathetically, while he and Harry were never going to be friends, they were cut from the same cloth, had moved through the ranks of the security services at a similar pace and had known each other a long time. He might not like the man or often his approach to his work, but he respected what he stood for. "Well her coming in to Thames House was a surprise to me."

"What did she want?" Harry asked softly.

"She said she couldn't sleep at night, that the guilt of taking the money and lying about what she'd seen was eating away at her and she wanted to confess."

"So why did she come here?" Harry looked curious, "why not go straight to the police?"

"Because she knew the people she was dealing with at the time were from the Security Services... and she knew that they were no longer here. I think that's what took her so long to come forward."

Harry nodded, "so what did she confess to?"

"She said she was approached and offered money to say that she'd seen Miss Evershed push Maudsley into the path of an oncoming train. They'd told her that she was a wanted criminal and this was for the good of the country... the money also helped significantly."

Harry shook he head and stared into his glass of whiskey trying to get his thoughts into order and his emotions in check. "I still don't understand why she's suddenly decided to confess... or to be honest, why you're suddenly telling me this two months after the fact. We already knew Ruth didn't do what she was accused of... though she did go round and threaten someone, presumably the same lady."

"Threaten?"

"Before she went into deep cover," Harry pinched the bridge of his nose trying to recall events, "Carter and Younis thought it'd make her 'suicide' more believable."

Dolby took another sip of his drink, "I wasn't aware of that."

"She didn't mention it?" Harry looked surprised.

He shook his head. "No. She just said how what she'd said at the time kept playing on her mind. She'd confided in her local vicar I believe without going into any of the details, and he'd encouraged her to come forward."

"So why wait two months to tell me all this?"

Dolby again stood up, "I know that you were close to Ruth..."

"She was an integral part of my team, yes"

Dolby lifted an eyebrow as he looked down at Harry, "I'm not stupid Harry, I know you were a damn sight closer to her that that."

"Dickie," Harry's voice was laced with a warning tone. "That really is none of your business."

Dolby held up his hands as though backing away, "fine, have it your way, not that it makes any real difference." He moved over to a cabinet at the other side of the room and withdrew a blue manila folder from it before sitting back down. "I didn't involve you at the initial stages Harry because I didn't want to give you false hope."

"False hope?"

"A confession by itself means nothing, you know that."

"I'm well aware of that." Harry's brain was churning and he was struggling to think straight, trying to work out what pieces of the jigsaw he was missing, hearing Ruth's name mentioned after all this time had thrown him far more than he was ever likely to admit to anyone.

"After speaking with her and ascertaining that she was being truthful I made a few enquiries of my own into the matter." Dolby fiddled with the file in front of him

"I see."

Dolby looked down at his desk knowing what he had to impart next wouldn't go down well. "I followed a few paths that led me down various rabbit holes and then I spoke with Oliver Mace three weeks ago."

Harrys head shot up and his face darkened in anger, "Mace," he spat out, "I wouldn't believe a word that man has to say about anything."

"Yes, well I never really liked him myself Harry," Dolby said mildly, "but he's keen to make amends and be allowed back into the fold."

"Back into the fold," Harry stood up suddenly before stalking across to the whisky decanter and helping himself to another large measure, "I hope you told him to take a running jump off the side of a cliff."

"Just a valued member of your team was she." Dolby asked rhetorically before catching a glimpse of the anger burning in Harry's eyes and hurrying on. "You know a man like Mace was never going to stay out of the fold indefinitely, he knows too much, knows too many powerful people, both in politics and business."

"Well I thought he was destined to stay in overseas diplomatic posts like every other disgraced political highflyer."

Dolby's lips quirked in amusement, "So you do know what he'd been doing then since forced to leave the country?"

"Of course," Harry retorted angrily, "I wanted him where I could keep an eye on him. Make sure he didn't ruin anybody else's life in the process. It's hardly my idea of punishment though."

"Well a diplomatic posting to the Falkland Islands is hardly a picnic Harry."

"Got sick of the penguins has he." Harry said venomously, "if it'd been up to me, it wouldn't have been to the Falklands he'd been posted to. Pitcairn would have been a far better option."

"Well that's as maybe Harry, but regardless of your feelings on what should have happened to him, we both know the way the system works."

"And people wonder why we have such problems." Harry muttered into his drink darkly, "so what happens now. What did Mace say?"

"He made a deal Harry, not with me but with Siviter over at Six."

"Siviater is involved as well?" Harry looked at Dolby in disgust, "talk about the old boys network."

"You know as well as I do the processes that are in place for when something like this happens."

Harry shook his head, trying to make sense of it all, "so what happens now?" He asked wearily, the fight suddenly draining out of him, for the moment anyway.

"Well," Dolby started.

"No let me guess, Mace confessed to everything, pleaded remorse and Jools has bent the ear of the PM so Mace gets let back in, probably with a slap on the knuckles and a job in the FCO if he promises not to do it again and Jools gets a key asset inside Government who owes him a lot of favours."

Dolby nodded sadly, "that's pretty much it Harry."

Harry pushed his chair away from the desk, "I don't know why I bother," he exclaimed heavily. "Well thank you for telling me Dickie, I know it can't have been easy, now if you'll excuse me I have things I need to be getting on with."

"Harry wait," Harry stopped as he reached the door.

"What now?"

"I haven't quite finished."

Harry rubbed his hands over his face, "if you're trying to break the news to me that Mace will be joining MI5 then you'll have my resignation letter in the morning."

"Sit down Harry." As Harry made his way back over and took the seat, Dolby pushed the manila folder over to him. "Open this."

Harry took the file and looked inside, there wasn't much, a few documents, a birth certificate and a passport. He opened it slowly not knowing what to expect and sagged back into his seat once he read the name, "this is a passport for Ruth," he said softly, "dated three days ago."

Dolby nodded, "when I say Mace made a deal, we did it on the condition that he told us everything. He backed up Janet Oliver's confession that Ruth never pushed Maudsley, he also admitted that Fox had never existed and that there had been no one from Section D at that meeting which started all these problems off."

"So this means that Ruth is now considered innocent?

"Well she always was Harry, as you well know, but this means that she's free again." He smiled at the man in front of him. "It's taken a few days to get this all cleared up but her death has now been expunged from the records and now all you have to do is give her the documents and let her know she's free to come back to England and resume her old life."

Harry sat still, he couldn't quite believe what he'd just heard, he'd more or less come to terms with the fact that he'd never see Ruth again and that to all intents and purposes she had actually died and now this. "So you know where she is then?"

"Ahhh, no." Dolby looked over at him from across his desk, "I thought you would know?"

Harry shook his head mutely, "we thought it was safer for her if we had no idea where she went."

"So no one knows?"

Harry looked at him ashen faced, "No one... And I wouldn't even know where to start..."

TBC


	2. Chapter 2

Thanks to all the readers and especially the people who took time out to review chapter one. Onwards we go, but not necessarily upwards.

xxxxxx

Adam hurried through the pods scanning his watch as he went. He was meant to have been back 20 minutes earlier for a meeting with Harry around a delicate situation in Leeds, where an agent currently undercover was showing signs of 'Stockholm syndrome' and becoming a little too evasive on his nightly call in. He glanced around quickly, it had just gone six o'clock and Harry's office was shrouded in darkness, catching a glimpse of a familiar face walking back to his desk with a cup of tea he called over. "Malcolm, any idea where Harry is?"

Malcolm paused en route to his desk before wandering over to where Adam stood, "No, sorry, anything I can help with?"

Adam shook his head, "I just needed to update him about Rogers up in Yorkshire, we were meant to be meeting 20 minutes ago."

Malcolm raised his eyebrows briefly as if to say that if Adam was 20 minutes late, he couldn't really be upset with Harry for showing the same tardiness, but said nothing. He looked around the Grid briefly, it was still a hive of activity despite the time of night. "I haven't seen him since he left for his meeting with Dolby, though that would be a few hours ago now."

"And he's not been back since?"

"Not that I've seen, though I have been down in the Registry up until 10 minutes ago, he may well have been and gone."

Adam caught a junior Analyst as he walked by, his head buried in a folder, "Iain, you haven't caught sight of Harry at all recently have you?"

"Not since around lunch time," was the quick answer given,

"And you've been on the Grid the last few hours?"

Iain nodded. "Yes sir, I've been focusing on that chatter coming through from GCHQ around Greenham."

"Thanks Iain," Adam watched as the Analyst sat back down at his desk, his head still buried in whatever document it was he was reading, "and don't call me sir," he added quickly with a grin before turning back to Malcolm. "I've got a strange feeling about this," he commented, "Harry was really insistent that we meet tonight to discuss this potential issue with Rogers before he checks in. I was surprised I didn't receive a call from him when I was late arriving."

"Give me a moment," Malcolm wandered over to his desk and picking up the phone quickly tapped in a couple of numbers before waiting for it to connect. "Agnes, how are you? Malcolm Wynn-Jones here from Section D... yes, yes I'm all good and how are you?" Adam rolled his eyes, at the conversation, Agnes, the DG's PA was a lovely lady but could talk like a magpie given half a chance. He motioned Malcolm to hurry up and get to the point. "Sorry to interrupt you Agnes, but we're trying to track Harry down, is he still in with the DG?... oh really... half an hour after everyone else...that is strange... what time did he leave?" Malcolm waved to Adam with his hand and mouthed, "he left Dolby about 40 minutes ago," as Agnes kept chirping away in his ear.

Adam walked away, a slight frown on his face, it wasn't like Harry to miss a meeting particularly with him and especially after all the trouble that had arisen with Ana, the Iranian incident and the fallout from that. On the spur of the moment, he turned back round and indicated to Malcolm that he was going back out, he had a funny feeling in his stomach and he wasn't quite sure why.

* * *

Harry jumped slightly as he heard the door to the roof open behind him. He'd gone straight there after leaving Dickie's office in an attempt to get his jumbled thoughts in order, there was so much racing through his mind that he didn't know where to start. Fury at Mace being allowed back into the fold with little more than a slap on the wrist and trepidation over the news about Ruth. She had been in his thoughts more that he would like to admit, even to himself, over the past 18 months and as much as he'd entertained the fantasy of riding in on a white horse and saving her from disaster, he was a knight after all even if only in name, he knew the reality was a lot different. Firstly he hadn't been lying when he said he had no idea where Ruth was now and secondly, even if he had known, there wasn't any guarantees that Ruth would actually want to be rescued. She'd always yearned for some sort of normality and order in her life and maybe going into exile had finally forced that opportunity on her.

"There you are," Adam said as he made his way over to him, "I've been looking all over for you."

Harry turned to look at him with half an eyebrow quirked. "All over?" he asked sardonically.

Adam rubbed his hands together against the cold, "well the canteen and I phoned Whitehall, neither had seen either head nor tail of you, so I headed up here," he answered with a grin.

"Sounds like a proper manhunt, remind me to put expert tracker down amongst your skills in you personnel file when we get back downstairs," was Harry's dry retort.

"Well I managed to find you." Adam smiled broadly.

"I wasn't aware I was hiding..." Harry looked over at him again. "Was there something you wanted Adam?"

He leaned against the railings on the roof and looked over the expanse of the city in front of him, it was dusk and the lights from all the offices and landmarks were starting to become visible on the horizon. "Our meeting, you know the one you told me not to miss under any circumstances..."

Harry looked at his watch, "Bugger, sorry Adam, it completely slipped my mind."

Adam grinned at him. "Don't worry about it, another 24 hours isn't going to make any difference to this in the grand scheme of things."

"Is that so?" Harry looked over at him, searching his face for any hint of complacency but found none.

"Yes, if he has started to get a little too involved then we'll need to get another couple of officers up there, but we're not going to know that until we've questioned him thoroughly and we're not going to be able to do that until we've got said officers up there and arranged a suitable time to pull him in. So that if we're all wrong about all of this, him going missing for a few hours isn't going to be noticed by Mahmood's gang of merry men." Adam looked over to Harry and folded his arms against his chest. "We just send Andrews and Kaplan up there tonight so they're in place and have the chat with Rogers tomorrow instead. It means we can move very quickly if we need to and lessens the chance of him making a quick escape or doing something foolish if we are right."

Harry nodded, what Adam said made complete sense but he chided himself internally on missing the initial meeting. "I suppose what you say has merit." They stood together both staring out over the view of London in silence for a few moments before Adam broke the quietness.

"Look Harry, you can tell me to mind my own business if you want, but is something wrong?"

He sighed, someone as astute as Adam was bound to pick up on his sense of malaise quickly but he made an attempt to deflect the question. "Why would there be something wrong?"

"Because, you missed a meeting to come and stand up here, which is where you tend to go if your need to clear your thoughts." Adam looked over at his boss, he certainly looked as robust as ever but still. "Plus you were also in with Dolby for half an hour longer than all the other Section Heads, and though I might not win at Mastermind, I'm certainly clever enough to realise that the two things are probably related."

"You have been doing your homework," Harry said wryly turning towards Adam wondering exactly how much or how little he could get away with telling the younger man, "I take it Agnes was your source on the meeting?"

Adam nodded, "yep."

"Did she say anything else?"

"Not that I know of," he shrugged, "Malcolm was still on the phone with her when I left."

Harry pursed his lips and gripped the railing in front of him tightly, it was beginning to get cold now that the little warmth from the early autumn sunshine was disappearing. "You're right," he said softly but clearly, he looked over towards Adam, "he did tell me something and what I tell you now goes no further, do you understand?"

"Of course Harry," he looked momentarily put out, "you can trust me completely."

"I mean it Adam," Harry warned, "no running to the papers this time or doing something else stupid, no matter what I tell you."

"I thought we'd moved past that?" Adam said, slightly shamefaced.

"We have," Harry answered, "and I'm sorry to have to bring it up again, but when I tell you what Dickie Dolby told me then you'll understand. Parts of this are likely to become common knowledge around Whitehall and internally over the next couple of months but other parts, well..."

Adam looked at him curiously, "well what?" He asked, "go on then, tell me..."

* * *

Malcolm looked out across the Grid, his cup of tea had gone cold while he'd been talking to Agnes and once he'd passed on the information about Harry to Adam, they'd settled in for a bit of a chat. She was a passionate lover of classic literature much like himself and was a collector of First Editions, she often spent her weekends browsing around jumble sales and car boot sales in order to find that hidden gem and had been telling him about a recent find of hers. Malcolm felt slightly guilty for talking to her for so long, but quickly justified it to himself as he spotted the clock on the wall of the Grid and realised, that he, like his missing colleague and boss, worked hours far greater than their actual contracts stipulated. Still he thought to himself as he wandered back to the kitchen to make himself another hot drink, where the hell have Harry and now Adam disappeared to.

* * *

"Wow!" Adam looked stunned as Harry finished updating him on both Ruth and Mace.

"So you see now why there's such a need for discretion." Harry asked.

"Yes, Mace coming back is really going to set the cat amongst the pigeons." Adam shook his head in disgust, "I can't believe how the world works at times. I really thought we'd seen the back of him for good after that torture and extradition scandal. I as much as told him that when I last saw him."

"Men like him always find a way back," Harry grimaced, "but if he so much as puts his foot an inch out of line, then I won't be responsible for my actions."

Adam nodded, he knew exactly what Mace had done to Harry both professionally and personally over the years, not just with the events of Cotterdam, but also on numerous other occasions. "On the plus side though," he said with a slightly cheeky grin, "that's good news about Ruth."

"Is it?" Harry said with a weary sigh, sounding like he had the weight of the world on his shoulders.

Adam looked at him in amazement. "Is it," he repeated quickly, "what the hell is that supposed to mean, of course it's good news... for you especially."

Harry stared at him for a moment or two with a look of warning on his face before speaking slowly. "Of course it's good news that Ruth has been fully exonerated but..."

"But what?"

"We don't know what Ruth's circumstances are now," Harry looked over at him with desperation etched on his face, "hell we don't even know where she is."

Adam took a step back, "you've really no idea?"

Harry shook his head, "no," he said softly, "no idea at all."

Adam's face registered surprise, "I always thought you knew where she was, even that maybe the two of you were still in touch somehow."

"That's not how it works Adam, you know that." Harry said firmly. "Any contact between the two of us could easily have placed her in danger."

"And you were never tempted to try and find her?"

Harry paused momentarily as if weighing something up in his mind before speaking softly. "When she left, she left completely clean. Zaf organised for a new passport to be waiting for her with one of his assets when she arrived in France, along with some money and once she collected that, from that point on she was completely alone."

Adam sighed as if deep in thought. "And you have no idea what her legend is now?"

"No, none at all." Harry pursed his lips, "if anyone did have an idea, it would have been Zaf." His head dropped slightly as he closed his eyes briefly as he recalled Zaf's fate. Another one lost on his watch, another life given over to Queen and Country, supposedly for the greater good.

Adam rubbed his hands across his face, "You were never tempted to ask him for any further details, see if he knew anything?" he queried.

"I thought it safer all round if I didn't know anything." Harry smiled sadly.

"So we find her ourselves," Adam argued, "it might be difficult but let's face it, we're spies, it's what we do."

"As I've just told you, we don't know where she is or what name she's using or even if she's still..." he paused, not wanting to put his greatest fear about Ruth into words.

"You alone might struggle," Adam said with a slight grin. He'd known what the older man had been alluding to when he saw the shadow cast briefly across his face while he spoke, "but you'll have my help, and if anyone can find a needle in a haystack then its Malcolm and Connie."

Harry turned round and leaned his back against the railings squeezing his eyes together with his right hand. "She might not want to be found," he stated calmly, certainly a lot more calmly than he actually felt.

"And she might be desperate to be." Adam countered, his voice starting to raise slightly. "Look Harry, I know she meant a lot to you but..."

"But nothing. This has nothing to do with my personal feelings, it's what's best for Ruth that counts." Harry said matching Adam's tone with one of his own.

"And you honestly don't think that giving her the option of being able to return to her old life if she wants to, isn't the best option for her?" Adam shook his head slowly in disbelief.

"I don't know." He turned around to face the city once again, gripping hold of the railing as if it was a lifeline, "I just don't know Adam, this isn't a decision I ever thought I'd have to face."

Adam let out a deep breath before continuing with an edge of frustration to his voice, "I think you're scared."

"Don't be ridiculous," Harry bit back.

"You are." Adam warmed to his theme and continued to push him, "You're scared that what you've built up in your head about you and Ruth over the last couple of years is going to be challenged and you don't want to face that."

Harry whirled round to look at him. "Don't overstep the mark with me Adam," he spat out, "you have no idea what I feel and no idea what I would..."

"Well all I know," Adam interrupted, "is that if someone told me that there was even the slightest chance to see Fiona again, I'd move heaven and earth to make it happen."

"That's completely different." Harry countered quickly. "Ruth and I were nev..."

"Too right it's completely different Harry!" Adam's eyes were blazing as he faced his boss, the two of them only inches apart. "Fiona is actually dead, while Ruth, as far as we're aware, is alive somewhere, possibly unhappy with the life she has, or scared, or in danger and you're just content to sit here and do nothing. Well screw you Harry." With that, he turned and walked briskly away to the rooftop door. "I always thought you were a better man than that, I actually thought Ruth really meant something to you. I guess I was wrong," he said angrily before slamming the door behind him and making his way back down towards the bowels of Thames House leaving a dumbstruck Harry staring after him.

TBC


	3. Chapter 3

Thanks once again to everyone who has read and in particular everyone who takes time to review this story.

xxxxx

Malcolm looked up in surprise as Adam flung himself into the chair across from his desk with a heavy sigh. He'd been so caught up in the work he'd been doing on the research for Harry that he hadn't noticed his arrival back on the Grid. "Everything okay? he ventured, Adam didn't look in the mood to be messed with

Adam looked across at him as if weighing up his thoughts. "Malcolm," he started, "do you ever think Harry..."

"Do I ever what think Harry what?" he questioned after Adam failed to finish what he'd started to ask.

Adam shook his head, "nothing," he continued with another deep sigh, "it's just that sometimes he can be such a...a..."

"Maddening, obtuse, frustrating man?" Malcolm offered with a wry smile.

Adam quirked his lips, "I was going to say cold hearted bastard."

"I take it you found him then?"

Adam nodded, "yes, he was up on the roof."

"Ahhh."

"Ahhh what?"

"That's generally where he goes when he needs to clear his mind." Malcolm took a mouthful of his now cold tea and grimaced before setting it down quickly. "He has done for years. Agnes mentioned that he'd been dealt a bit of a bombshell."

"She told you about it?" Adam looked up shocked, so much for it supposedly remaining silent.

Malcolm shook his head. "No, she just said that Dolby had been extra secretive about something recently and she believed it was something that affected Harry. She inferred that she had an inkling what was going on but I think that was to try and milk information from me."

"And did you tell her anything?" Adam questioned quickly.

"No, how could I, I don't know what is going on." Malcolm answered in a slightly haughty tone.

"Ah yes, of course," he puffed his cheeks out before letting go of a deep breath.

Malcolm sat up straight. "What's happening Adam, is there something going on that I should be aware of?"

"I can't say," Adam smiled wryly, "you know how it is."

"Secrets on top of secrets." Malcolm spoke with the demeanour of someone who had been fobbed off many time. "If you told me then you'd have to kill me."

"Something like that."

They both looked up as the pods gave their familiar whooshing sound and Harry stepped on to the Grid with a determined look on his face. He cast his eyes around quickly and stopped when he reached the two of them. "Sorry to interrupt the mothers meeting," he said testily, "Adam, my office now." With that, he headed straight there without another look at either of them.

"Well whatever it is, it looks like you're in the doghouse," Malcolm commented dryly.

"Nah... on this one I think even Harry knows I'm right," said Adam confidently as he got out of his chair. "It just depends on how long it takes him to realise it this time."

Malcolm raised his eyebrows. "Good luck with that," he said solemnly. " _Once more unto the breach dear friend, once more._ "

Adam stopped half way to the office and turned round with a confused look on his face, "sorry?"

"Shakespeare dear boy," Malcolm said mildly, "I was paraphrasing Shakespeare, didn't they teach you anything useful at school?"

Adam grinned widely. "Ahhh," he commented. "Don't worry Malcolm, _I'll be back!_ " The latter part of this he said in a strangled Germanic accent.

It was Malcolm's turn to look puzzled this time... "Kafka?" He hazarded a guess.

"Not even close!" Was Adam's reply as he paused with a hand on the closed door to Harry's office, "it was The Terminator... it always pays for a spy to keep up with general knowledge don't you think Malcolm. He gave one last cheeky wink before he opened the door and headed into Harry's office and the inner sanctum.

* * *

"What was all that about?" Connie questioned as she sidled up to Malcolm's desk silently. She'd been off the Grid most of the day and was eager to find out if she'd missed anything.

"Adam being Adam," Malcolm answered quickly. He wasn't sure what was going on between Harry and Adam but his sixth sense, plus the cryptic comments Dolby's PA Agnes had made earlier gave him a feeling of slight unease. "So where've you been all day? I expected you back hours ago."

Connie looked away slightly and Malcolm swore he saw the glimmer of a shadow cross her face before she answered him brightly. "Not that it's any of your beeswax, but I spent the day at the Russian Embassy meeting with a couple of old contacts there."

"Really, I hadn't thought you'd had much to do with the Russians since the end of the Cold War."

"I haven't," Connie answered quickly, "but you know how it is. Chatter on the airwaves, old cold war adversaries and a potential prisoner swap suddenly pops into the conversation."

"Oh?"

"Someone I knew from Prague back in the early eighties is now working in the Russian Embassy, she asked me to quietly put out feelers around a potential prisoner swap, that's why I came back here to see Harry, rather than going straight home."

Malcolm sat up straight. "Really? Who are they talking about?"

"Well from our side there were a couple of names mentioned to me and from theirs..." Connie smiled slightly, "do you remember someone called Lucas North, he was an Agent here with us years ago?"

"Lucas..." Malcolm's eyes opened wide in surprise. "Golly, I haven't heard that name in a long time. Of course I remember him, it must be eight or nine years that he's been over there now."

"Eight I think." Connie answered. "The Russians have decided that they've got everything they possibly can out of him and now want to send him back... and obviously get one of their own back in exchange of course."

Malcolm rubbed his hands over his face. "Goodness, well that's promising news."

"It is." Connie glanced over towards Harry's office where Harry's and Adam's shadows could be seen as though they were having an animated discussion. "So do you think it's worth disturbing them or should I leave it a moment?"

Malcolm looked over. "I'd say give it 5 minutes," he stared momentarily in consternation at yet another cup of tea that had gone cold due to people interrupting him. "I'll go and make us both a brew and we can go from there," he offered with a smile.

* * *

"So how would you go about it?" Harry questioned Adam. He was still feeling a little miffed from the way Adam had spoken to him earlier, though he also recognised the uncomfortable feeling that usually came when someone was telling him what he knew to be true, but hadn't yet admitted it to himself.

"How would I go about what?" Adam asked puzzled. When he'd initially been summonsed into Harry's office, he'd expected either a trite apology or a blasting. He'd got neither. Instead they'd spent the last ten minutes discussing the operation in Leeds and whether Ben Kaplan, who had only recently finished his training, was up to questioning another agent who they suspected may have been turned, albeit with another superior officer. With a lack of other alternatives as Jo was still off on sick leave following her horrendous encounter with the Redbacks and a lack of a suitable replacement for Zaf, they had decided to risk sending Ben along, feeling the experience at least would be a useful learning curve if nothing else.

"Finding Ruth." Harry answered softly, before standing and pouring himself a generous measure of single malt. He wiggled the decanter at Adam and he nodded, taking the offer of a drink for the truce that Harry obviously meant it to be.

Adam took the glass from Harry and thought while taking a large sip of the drink. "I don't know," he said honestly after a few seconds pause, "up until very recently it's not something I've ever really thought about."

"Well I have..."

Adam looked up in surprise. "Oh from what you said earlier..." he trailed off.

"You thought I'd never given her a second thought." Harry said sadly, "I'm well aware of my reputation Adam, but I'm not entirely without feelings,"

Adam looked slightly shamefaced thinking of his earlier comment to Malcolm before deciding to move past the slightly awkward topic of Sir Harry Pearce and his feelings. He liked and respected the man a lot... most of the time, but they'd never really gone in for man to man chats. "So you looked for her, or thought about looking for her?" He asked curiously

Harry inclined his head slightly. "About a year ago I did a little digging, mainly to make sure she was okay and safe wherever she was and found nothing."

Adam nodded, "what steps did you take?"

"Checked the travel records of all her known aliases, also the bank details of said aliases to see if there had been any withdrawals."

"That's it?" Adam asked incredulously once Harry had finished, he'd expected a comprehensive list not such a high level search.

"What do you mean that's it." Harry said defensively. "We have no idea what alias she's travelling under, no idea where in the world she actually is and it's not something I could be sharing with any of my overseas counterparts in the hope that they'd be able to share some of their records. In case you've forgotten Adam, she's supposed to be dead."

"Hmmm," Adam rolled the glass round in his hand watching the dark liquid move slowly and partially stick to the glass. "She was supposed to be dead," he said at length, "that's no longer the case."

Harry looked over at Adam. "So?" He questioned softly.

Adam smiled suddenly. "So now we can rattle a few trees, get some of those favours back from our European, Commonwealth and American cousins that I'm sure you're owed."

"It's still like looking for a needle in a haystack."

"True..." Adam tapped his fingers against his bottom lip. "But I'm presuming that last time you did it alone?" He said at length.

Harry nodded. "Yes."

"Well then." Adam swivelled his chair round and looked out through the windows of Harry's office to the Grid beyond. "We're field spooks you and I Harry," he said with a smile before pointing over to where Malcolm and Connie were sat by Malcolm's desk chatting away while drinking tea. "Finding needles in haystacks isn't our area of strength, we just deal with the needles once they've been narrowed down. However those two, are two of the best needle finders in the business and if anyone can do it then it'll be them."

Harry sighed recognising the truth in Adam's words. He'd thought about speaking with Malcolm when he'd previously looked but had decided against it, and even now was having doubts about bringing two more people on-board. "I asked you to keep to yourself what we talked about earlier," he said mildly, "you haven't said anything to Malcolm have you? I noticed you having a quiet chat when I came in earlier."

"Not a word Harry, I promise. But we can't do it alone." Adam urged. "We need their help and it's different this time. Ruth is actually alive now... well she was before, but you know what I mean."

Harry thought about his words briefly before nodding and pursing his lips. "Okay bring them in, the more the merrier at this stage."

* * *

Jo glanced at her watch as she ran, 8.06pm she noted. She'd been running for over two hours and she hurt. Her carves were hurting, her thighs were burning, she was sure she had multiple blisters on each foot, her lungs felt like they were on fire and yet she welcomed the pain. In the days since the attack by the Redbacks she'd not been able to stop thinking about it, going over and over it again and again in her head until she'd wanted to claw her brain out to stop herself remembering. She'd been meant to go for counselling but had walked out half way through the session. How on earth was someone else going to understand what she'd been through and help, when she had no idea in her own mind.

She'd quickly discovered that running was her only escape, the only time that the physical pain of pounding down streets and across parks, drowned out the emotional pain and the memories of what she'd been through. She thought momentarily of gong back to her flat, the place she'd shared with Zaf, but that was something else that had now gone and the place hadn't felt like home since he'd been taken. She glanced again at her watch, another hour she thought to herself, another hour of this and then maybe I'll be so tired that I'll actually be able to sleep tonight.

* * *

Harry looked over his desk at Malcolm and Connie. Malcolm's mouth was still slightly ajar as he attempted to take it all in. "So," he concluded after having given them both a comprehensive rundown of the situation both with Ruth and Oliver Mace, "do either of you have any questions at this time?"

Malcolm shook his head numbly, he like both Harry and Adam had thought he'd seen the last of Mace, a cruel man whom he had never liked. Not that Oliver Mace would have even known who he was, despite their paths crossing on numerous occasions over the years. People like Malcolm didn't matter to Mace, they weren't powerful enough or rich enough to be of any real influence so therefore didn't matter. "No," he said weakly, before clearing his throat of the frog lying there, "no questions from me at the moment." He added more firmly, his thoughts turning to Ruth, another friend and colleague lost whom he'd never thought he'd see again.

"Well then," Harry started, before Connie butted in.

"I do actually."

"Go on then." Harry waved his hand inviting her to speak.

"Oliver Mace, well I don't have much to say about him, but it amazes me that you're surprised at his return Harry. He always was a snake in the grass, have you forgotten what he did that time in Italy?" As Harry squirmed uncomfortably, she continued "This Ruth..."

"Ruth Evershed." Adam chipped in from Harry's side. He'd been largely quiet while Harry had relayed what he'd learnt earlier to Malcolm and Connie, but despite liking the older lady, he also realised that she had a precision when questioning, that was positively lethal at times it was so sharp and to the point, and he wanted to spare Harry this as much as he could.

"So, who was she." Connie took a sip from the vodka that she'd brought in with her, while all the men had a tumbler of whiskey in front of them.

"She was an Analyst here a couple of years ago." Adam answered. "She did much the same job as you do now."

"Yes, yes." Connie waved her free hand in the air,. "I've seen her name on numerous reports, I know she was an Analyst here. What I mean was, who was she?"

"I don't unders..." Adam started.

"What Connie is trying to say," Harry interrupted dryly, "is why are we going to all this effort to find Ruth when we have no idea where she is. This isn't normal protocol."

"And it's not your usual course of action either." Connie said slyly.

Harry looked directly at her. "I'm sorry, am I missing something here?"

"Lucas North." Connie answered the question with a gleam in her eye. "You've known exactly where he's been for the last eight years and haven't lifted a finger to help him, so why go to all this effort for this Ruth?"

"Who's Lucas North?" Adam asked puzzled.

His question was left unanswered as Harry responded angrily. "Don't attempt to fudge this issue with smoke Connie. I've done everything in my power to help Lucas as well you know!"

"That was below the belt Connie." Malcolm looked over at his colleague, noticing the gleam in her eye. She'd done this to knock Harry off kilter and to hopefully get more information from him than she would normally about Ruth. He made to speak again but Harry held his hand up and waited for the room to fall silent before he spoke.

"I know what you're trying to do Connie and it won't work with me." He arched his eyebrow at her, "I wrote the handbook around that remember."

Connie flushed slightly. "It was worth a try," she ventured.

Harry took another sip of his drink. "Ruth and I," he began slowly, "well we were close. She gave up everything for me, to save me and to save the service, that's why I want to try and find her." He glanced over at Adam quickly. "I owe her that much at least. With Lucas there's nothing in my power at this time that I can do to help but I won't stop trying, but with Ruth there are possibilities. Does that make you understand a little more?"

Connie nodded, knowing she'd get no further information out of Harry that night. She could see it in his eyes that he'd already told her more than he'd wanted to. 'No matter,' she thought to herself, Malcolm would be far more obliging around answering her questions in the morning once he'd got that stunned mullet look off his face. "Yes," she said quietly, answering Harry's question.

"Well then," Harry said looking at the clock on his wall. "I suggest we all get ourselves home and reconvene tomorrow once all this has sunk in and you've had time to digest it." Malcolm and Adam both pushed back their chairs recognising a dismissal when they saw it, but Connie remained seated.

"Just one more thing Harry," she asked.

"Yes?"

"Why did you decide to go and look for her 12 months ago. What happened then to make you do that?"

Adam and Malcolm both stopped from making their way out of Harry's office and turned round to face Harry and Connie who were still seated. "That's a good question." Malcolm said softly.

Harry rubbed his hands over his face before using his right hand to cover his eyes as if he was thinking about something. "Because I heard from her." He said after a few beats.

Connie beamed triumphantly while Adam looked accusingly at his boss. "You said earlier that you hadn't been in touch with her at all since she'd left."

"I haven't," Harry replied mildly, "she got in touch with me."

"That's just semantics," Malcolm butted in, annoyance radiating through his tone.

"So how did she get in touch?" Connie asked carefully.

Harry looked at the three of them, all waiting for his answer. "She sent me a postcard." He said eventually.

"And was there anything on there at all, any clues that could be followed up?" Adam questioned quickly.

Harry shook his head glumly. "Nothing at all I'm afraid. I tested it one night when you'd all left," noticing Malcolm's incredulous look he continued, "I'm not a complete Luddite."

"And where was the postcard sent from?" Malcolm queried.

"I don't know. There was no postmark or franking on the card, it was delivered by hand."

"By hand?" Adam questioned.

Connie quickly answered. "Old spy trick, pass the message on from person to person, each one only knowing the person before and the person after them. It takes a while but it's virtually impossible to trace the trail."

Harry nodded glumly. "It was delivered by my usual postman, I got that far, but he had no clue how it ended up in my bundle of mail. The trail went cold very quickly."

"And the picture on the front, were there any clues there?"

"No," Harry said sadly, "it was a picture of a street café in Paris with the Eiffel Tower in the background. I've been in touch with them and there were no drops left for me there."

"So you just checked aliases and bank details huh?" Adam said with raised eyebrows looking pointedly at his boss, suddenly very glad that Connie and Malcolm were also now involved.

"The postcard is a dead end." Harry said quietly. "I saw no reason to mention it."

"What did it say?" Connie asked shrewdly.

"That's rather personal," Harry began, "I'd rather not go into wha..."

"You either want our help or not." Malcolm said suddenly, surprising everyone including himself. "You need to be completely honest with us all, tell us everything. You might have missed something."

"I really don't think that's the case."

"He's right Harry," Adam said gently, "and it's the only clue we have at this time unless you're holding anything else back from us?"

Harry's head slumped into his chest. "No, there's nothing else."

"Well then," Connie chipped in, "do you still have it?"

"Of course I do!" He stood up and made his way to the safe in the corner of his office. while Adam, Connie and Malcolm each glanced quickly at each other before following Harry with their eyes as he opened it up and withdrew a folder.

"Ruth's file," Malcolm questioned as he sat back down, "you keep it in your safe?"

Harry looked uncomfortable for a moment before choosing to ignore the question. He opened the file and withdrew the postcard from the top of the contents in there. He went to pass it to Adam, but before handing it over, he pulled it back. "This goes without saying, but the contents of this postcard never leave this room." He looked at each one of them individually. "Do I have your word on that?"

"Of course!"

"Yes Harry."

"Certainly." Connie leaned over and took it from Harry's outstretched hand. She had a cursory glance at the front before turning it over and quickly scanned Ruth's words. She looked over at Harry and smiled sadly at him before reading the short passage out to Adam and Malcolm. She was quite sure that Harry would know the words off by heart." _You did the right thing. We both did the right thing. Salus populi suprema lex. Grand tours are less fun alone. But I am well and safe. Look after yourself. I think of you often. Quos amor versus tenuit tenebit, Stubborn Mule._

Malcolm glanced over at his boss, suddenly recognising just how much it had cost him to hand that postcard to the three of them. He was the most fiercely private person Malcolm had ever met and this was akin to having his soul stretched out in front of them all. "At least she said she was well and safe," he said softly.

Harry nodded, refusing to look any of them in the eye.

"I understood most of it but my Latin's a bit rusty." Adam looked over to Malcolm and Connie for help.

"' _Let this good of the people be the supreme law_ '. Is the first sentence." Connie started, "If my Latin is up to scratch."

"And the second?"

There was a pause in the room as Connie and Malcolm both looked at each other, neither one wanting to translate it in front of Harry.

"The literal translation," Harry began softly, surprising them all, "is _'true love will hold on to those whom it has held_." There was silence in the office as Harry finished speaking. "Now you understand why I asked for your complete confidence?" He continued quietly.

Adam was the first to stir himself. "Of course." He looked over at his boss before walking over to him and putting his hand on his shoulder. "We will find her Harry, I promise you. We will track her down somehow."

TBC

The postcard and the information around that, including what is written on the postcard all comes from the Spooks book The Personnel Files.


	4. Chapter 4

Thanks once again to everyone who read the last chapter and particularly those who took time out to review. It's much appreciated. Now on we go with the story...

xxx

Adam stuck his head into the forgery suite to see Malcolm hard at work trawling through reams of data on his computer. "Anything?" he asked, more in hope than expectation. It had been 10 days since Harry had told them about Ruth and passed the postcard over to them and so far they'd drawn an almighty blank. Their last chance was the test Malcolm was currently running, but Adam's faint hopes were dashed as Malcolm looked up and shook his head.

"Nothing at all I'm afraid." He stood up stretching his arms and legs having been cooped up at his desk for the last few hours. "Unfortunately it seems Harry was right when he said he'd done all the tests and checking, however basic they were. This is just a bog standard postcard, no clues or hidden messages at all."

"Bugger," Adam grimaced, "anything from Connie?" The Analyst had been tasked with following up on all of Ruth's known aliases and she'd had the advantage over Harry, in that between her and Malcolm, they had backdoors into a rather large number of countries immigration databases and she had also been able to utilise a number of contacts around the world, now that the level of secrecy around Ruth's death, or lack of, had dissipated.

"Not that I've heard." Malcolm sighed heavily. "She had a promising lead on Tuesday I think it was. A woman under the name of Sarah Turnball went through Canadian immigration as she was leaving Ottawa on a flight to New York and was flagged as there was no record of her actually entering the country and she was on an Australian passport."

"Sarah Turnball?"

"An alias," Malcolm replied while making a couple of changes to the parameters of the search he was currently running. "It was one Colin set up for her shortly after she joined Five."

"How many did she have?" Adam asked curiously, he'd left the detail to Malcolm and Connie while he'd focused on the big picture.

"Ruth, only three or four." Malcolm smiled in a melancholy manner. "Desk spooks only tend to have limited ones, and even then, they're only usually used for meeting assets, so there's not much back story goes into them."

Adam rubbed at the stubble on his jaw as if it aided his thinking. "So what happened to the lead?"

"Same name, same date of birth and from the footage we could bring up from their security cameras, she had a certain likeness to Ruth," Malcolm paused while tapping at a couple of keys before turning his attention back to Adam, "but when Connie dug a little deeper it turned out that Sarah Turnball was who she said she was. She just has duel nationality so had entered the country on her Canadian passport and left on her Australian one. The similarity to Ruth was purely that, a similarity. Just a very unfortunate coincidence for us."

"So what now?"

Malcolm shrugged his shoulders sadly. "Unfortunately there's not a lot else we can do, we'll keep running the checks, but in reality, the postcard was our best hope as it was always likely that Ruth would have taken a new identity as soon as she arrived in France and met with Zaf's contact, and the card has led to nothing."

Adam wandered over to the desk and picked the postcard up from where Malcolm had left it, "I guess it really was just a case of Ruth saying a final goodbye to Harry then. Just as he said it was."

Malcolm nodded, "it certainly seems that way."

Adam back leaned against the door frame heavily, turning the postcard over and over in his hands as if by doing so a hidden clue would suddenly spring out, out of nowhere leading to Ruth's whereabouts. "Well I suppose I better get this back to it's rightful owner," he said, partly to himself and partly to Malcolm.

Malcolm had already sat back down at his desk and had brought up another search on a second screen, "well there's nothing more I can do at this stage."

"I know, thanks for all your help."

Malcolm looked back up briefly. "She was my friend too Adam..."

"I know..." He shrugged lightly. "I really just thought we'd find her. A couple of days of looking and something would crop up."

"She's good... very good." Malcolm said, affection coming through in his voice. "A lesser spy would have probably left clues but..." he trailed off sadly.

Adam was about to leave the room but he turned back as something struck him. "Do you think that this was why Harry was so reluctant to search for her initially?" he asked quietly.

"What do you mean?"

Adam spread his hands helplessly. "The hope. Or rather losing all sense of hope. When there's nothing that can be done you don't really think about it, you just hope that something might change one day and you can cling onto that. But if you do something, and by doing that exhaust all hope, then the disappointment and pain is far more crushing."

"At least we tried," Malcolm breathed in deeply before continuing slowly, "we did everything we could."

"But..."

"But nothing." Malcolm countered gently, "If nothing else, at least we don't have to contend with all the 'what if's' if we'd failed to nothing.

Adam nodded "I suppose so," he said at length. "Not that that is going to be much comfort to Harry though."

* * *

Ruth stretched her neck from side to side as she finished entering the last entries from the patient notes onto the database. She'd arrived in Cyprus three months earlier in search of sun, having spent the earlier part of the year in the Northern climes of Europe and wanting warmer weather as the days shortened and the continent moved towards winter. After spending a couple of months exploring the Island, she had found a temporary job doing clerical work at the district hospital in Polis. It was nothing taxing but suited her for the moment, giving her chance to think and try oi work out what her next steps would be. She was sick of being constantly on the move and the fear of being recognised had started to rescind gradually after 18 months of anonymity. Her thoughts were interrupted by a gentle cough as one of the Doctors entered the room.

"You've finished for the day?" he asked in English with a gentle smile.

She swallowed, "sorry Doctor, do you need the computer?"

He shook his head with another smile. "No, I have a computer in my own office I can use and please, I have told you a number of times. Call me George, we don't stand on formality here, we're not like you British."

Ruth nodded apologetically. "Sorry Doc... I mean George." She liked the tall dark haired man. He had been friendly and welcoming to her since she'd joined the small team a couple of weeks ago.

"You didn't answer my question," he continued in a friendly tone, "have you finished for the day?"

Ruth looked around the office quickly. "Yes, I was just about to head off... unless there's something else you need me to do?"

"Well then, if you're finished for the day, would you like to come with me to the beach?" he asked quickly, catching Ruth completely by surprise.

"I errr, I don't..." she stuttered, trying to get her words into order.

"It's just a trip to the beach Ruth," he grinned suddenly at her. "I've promised to take my son Nico down there after school with a couple of his friends and it would be nice to have another adult to talk to, that's all."

Ruth looked up at him trying to decide what her answer would be. Tt would be nice to speak to someone else, she reasoned, particularly someone she could speak to in English which she'd sorely missed; and she had promised herself since leaving London that she would start being braver. "Isn't your wife going with you?" She asked, playing for time.

"I'm a widower," he looked directly at her, making eye contact, "she died three years ago."

"I'm sorry to hear that." Ruth said softly, slightly unnerved by the directness of his gaze.

"You have lost someone too I think?" He asked gently "I see it in your eyes at times, the way a shadow will sometimes cross your face."

Ruth nodded as tears suddenly sprang to her eyes. She hadn't cried for 6 months now and suddenly one kind word and the tap had been switched back on.

"I'm sorry," he moved to grab tissues from the box on her desk, "I didn't mean to upset you."

"You didn't. It just catches me unawares sometimes, that's all." Ruth said wiping her eyes and making a quick decision, "I'd love to go to the beach with you and your son if the offer's still there?"

George smiled broadly. "Of course, the car is just outside." He turned to the door. "Give me a moment to lock my office door and then we shall go."

He disappeared from sight and she could hear his footsteps moving at pace up the corridor. She bit her bottom lip as she tried to get her emotions back under control and once again attempted to block out thoughts of London and her previous life... and Harry, before she made her way to join George at his car.

* * *

Jo pounded down the street, headphones glued in her ears, indistinguishable music rushing through her head trying to drown everything else out. She was on the final straight after an exhausting three hour run and for once was welcoming the idea of her flat and a hot bath before trying to get some sleep, albeit aided by the sleeping pills she had finally succumbed to taking. She kept her eyes on her feet as she turned into her gate and slowed down to a walk before she looked up and saw the man sat on her doorstep waiting patiently for her.

"Hello Jo."

"Adam." She ripped the earphones out and was assaulted by the quiet, "what are you doing here?"

Adam stood up to greet her. "Can't I just pop by and see how you're doing?" he asked with a lopsided smile.

Jo brushed past him, opening the door with her key and made her way into her flat, not checking to see if he was following her. "I'm not coming back to work if that's what you're here for." She challenged as she entered the kitchen and greedily filled and drank a pint of water.

Adam followed her through, she'd lost weight he thought to himself, it had been a couple of weeks since he'd last seen her. He'd tried calling a couple of times and had popped round to her flat but there had never been any response. "That's not why I'm here."

Jo eyed him suspiciously as she lowered her glass. "Then why are you?"

He hesitated before answering, not knowing quite what to say. Jo had been signed off sick since the horrific events with the Redbacks and despite him also being there and imprisoned with her, she had shut everyone and anyone out, refusing to talk about it and refusing any help the service could offer. He reasoned to himself that any focus on her would have him being shown out of her flat quick smart, so moved quickly to the other purpose he'd come for. "I'm after your help."

"I've just told you, I'm not coming back." She turned her back on him and started drinking again.

"And I'm not asking you to." He answered gently. He moved to stand next to her, noticing with sadness how she flinched when he gently lay his hand on her shoulder to get her attention.

"So what do you want?"

"Sit down." he asked her quietly, "I'll get you some more water and then I'll explain."

She nodded, moving to the table and sinking wearily into one of the chairs while Adam refilled her glass and placed it in front of her. "Thanks," she said softly.

He took the seat opposite her and began speaking, quickly explaining the situation with Ruth and how their searches thus far had come to nothing. "We need your help." He implored at the end with a wry smile.

Jo looked at him bewildered. "And how am I supposed to help if you, Malcolm, Harry and Connie can't come up with anything between you all?"

"Zaf never said anything to you? Never told you anything about Ruth that he shouldn't have done?"

Jo shook her head numbly. "No... well he told me that she wasn't actually dead, that her death had been faked, but I'd already guessed that. He didn't give me any details at all."

Adam sighed, his one last hope had been that Zaf had decided to confide in Jo, maybe even have given her the name of his contact over there. "Bugger," he said quietly to himself. "And there was nothing left in his room?"

"No, he never brought work home with him ever." Jo looked at Adam and smiled softly, remembering her old flatmate. "You know Zaf, he was the only one of us who could walk out of Thames House and shake off the shadow of MI5, he hardly ever spoke about anything to do with work at home unless I brought it up first."

"And you've been through all his stuff?"

"Yes, there was nothing there. Just clothes, books, cd's. The usual stuff, nothing connected to either Ruth or work."

Adam leaned his head back, before drawing his hands over his face in an expression of despair. "Ahhh well, it was worth a try." he said sadly. "Nothing ventured, nothing gained."

"Sorry I couldn't be of more help." Jo said standing and taking her glass over to the sink. "Poor Ruth, somewhere, who knows where and no one can find her. I just hope she's happy wherever she is." She added wistfully.

"So do I." Adam stood as well. "And how are you Jo?" He ventured slowly.

"Fine." Was the quick answer, shot back in a way that didn't invite any further questions.

Adam looked over at her sadly, she had been through so much and she was still so young. "I'll call you soon," he promised her, "let you know how we're getting on... if we're getting on."

Jo nodded shortly and Adam turned to leave before stopping at the sound of her voice. "Were they...?" the question tailed off.

"Were they what?" He asked, a slightly confused look on his face.

"Harry and Ruth, were they seeing each other before she left?"

Adam shrugged, "I don't know. They're both very private people. What I do know, is that I've never seen Harry react like that before. Whatever it was they were to each other, I think they cared for each other deeply."

Jo nodded putting her arms around herself as if trying to stay warm. "I felt so guilty," she offered, "putting that tracker in Ruth's coat. If I hadn't have done that then..."

"Hey, no ifs or buts." Adam said with a smile. "Mace was gunning for Harry, if it hadn't have been this it would have been another way."

Jo smiled wanly. "It doesn't stop me feeling guilty though."

"Well you shouldn't." Adam walked over to her placing both of his hands on her shoulders gently. "I mean it Jo, you've got nothing to feel guilty about, either with this or with anything else..."

"I know." She stepped away from him causing his hands to fall to his side. "Can I see the postcard?" she asked suddenly.

Adam looked at her in surprise. She'd made no real effort to ask questions when he'd told her the story and had seemingly replied on autopilot to most things while he'd been at her flat. He thought briefly of his promise to Harry to keep all this secret, before pulling the card out of his pocket. He'd already made the decision that if Jo asked, then he'd show it to her, which was why it was in his possession rather than back with Harry as he'd intimated to Malcolm he was going to do. "Here you are," he said, passing it over. "Harry doesn't know I'm showing you this and he wouldn't be very happy if he found out, so..."

"My lips are sealed." Jo said with a smile, turning the card over in her hand. She wasn't focused on the words as Adam expected, but rather the picture on the front. "It's a lovely photo," she said at length, "I take it you've checked with the café in the scene that nothing was left there?"

He sighed heavily. "Harry did when he first received it and then Connie had a contact of hers in Paris go in a few days ago. Nothing at all I'm afraid."

Jo nodded, "and I take it you've also checked with the company that made this, that they didn't have any details on file?"

Adam's head jerked slightly as he looked at her directly. "What do you mean check with the company that made this? It's a postcard."

"It's a photo made into a postcard." Jo explained quickly, a feeling of lightness stealing through her as she realised that maybe, just maybe she had a piece of the puzzle that everyone else had missed. "See the name here, _Evolve_ on the bottom left hand side. They put your photo's into or onto lots of things. Calendars, mouse mats, mugs... postcards."

"Are you sure?" Adam grinned excitedly.

"Yes, my sister used them last year to make Christmas presents; hang on a second." She disappeared out of the kitchen, only to return a few moments later with a calendar featuring numerous smiling faces of the Portman family. "She made them for my grandparents," Jo said in a semi apologetic manner as she handed it to him, "but we all ended up with one." Adam turned it over in his hands and Jo pointed to the bottom left hand corner. See, _Evolve_ , it's the same company."

"Jo you're a genius!" Adam exclaimed, taking hold of her face in his hands and kissing her forehead in joy. "We've all been so caught up in the words and whether Ruth had hidden anything somehow in the card, we overlooked the thing that was staring at us in plain sight! With a bit of luck Malcolm and Connie will be able to hack into their database which shouldn't be too difficult and we'll have a name and possibly even credit card or bank details."

Jo beamed, it wasn't often... in fact never, that she managed to get one over some of the best and most experienced spies in the Service and the feeling was a slight reminder of how much she'd used to love her job. The satisfaction and adrenaline of putting things together, making a difference and helping people, even if they weren't aware of it.

TBC


	5. Chapter 5

"Jo!" Malcolm called, with a wave of his hand. "How are you?" He made his way quickly over to her across the Grid after spotting her stepping out of the pods and looking around warily. "I didn't expect to see you here. Harry and Adam didn't tell me you were coming back."

Jo smiled at Malcolm's cheerful greeting, he was as exuberant as she had ever seen him. "I'm not," she started, "well not properly. I'm not ready for it just yet."

Malcolm nodded. "Well what can we do for you?" he asked, leading her over towards the forgery suite where he and Connie had been trying to crack a code that seemingly related to several bomb threats across the South of Wales. They were pretty convinced that these were false alarms and a cover for something else. But whoever was sending them the warnings, obviously had a first rate mind and the work was keeping them busy to say the least. He opened the door for her and let he go in first "Or have you just popped in to say hello?"

"No, well not just that." Jo answered, before smiling broadly at Connie who was sat hunched up at her desk, a long forgotten, half empty, cold mug of tea sat beside her and who looked up as soon as they entered the room.

"Jo, my dear girl," she said standing up and making her way quickly over to her, "and to what do we owe this unexpected surprise?"

Jo smiled at the warm greeting she had received from two of her old colleagues, as much as she'd tried to block things out over the last few weeks, the warmth shown to her was another reminder of what she'd miss if she decided not to return to the Grid full-time. "I take it you wouldn't believe me if you said I was just passing and popped in for a cup tea." She said in an amused tone.

Connie chuckled, "no one ever just decides to pop in here. Have you come to see Adam... or Harry about returning."

Jo shook her head briefly, "I'm not quite ready for that," she said softly as Malcolm and Connie made their way back to their respective desks.

"So why are you here? Malcolm questioned curiously. "Not that you're not more than welcome, but if you're not just here to say hello and haven't come back to start again then..."

"You've not come back to resign your commission?" Connie asked, her hand flying to her mouth. "Oh Jo, don't make decisions like that in the heat of the moment."

"It's hardly the heat of the moment," Jo began, before quickly continuing as she saw Malcolm's expression, "and I haven't come here to resign."

"So...?" Malcolm queried, his voice tailing off.

"I've come to help." She glanced behind her quickly to where the door behind her was open leading to the hustle and bustle of the main office of the Grid. She moved quickly, shutting the door so that only Malcolm and Connie could hear her. "Adam told me about... well you know, about the postcard."

"And I believe you're the one that made the breakthrough." Malcolm looked up at her, a proud smile on his face.

Jo nodded, "more luck than anything else," she said modestly. She looked between the two of them, "have you had a breakthrough, only Adam told me he'd tell me straight away if you'd found something, but that was two days ago and I've heard nothing."

Malcolm and Connie glanced quickly between themselves before Connie answered. "Nothing as yet I'm afraid."

"Though we've not actually had much of a chance to do too much." Malcolm admitted, "We've both been up to our eyes in other matters and unfortunately for Ruth..."

"And Harry." Connie chipped in, a rather enigmatic smirk on her face.

"And Harry." Malcolm continued looking at Jo and raising his eyebrows slightly at Connie's mild barb. "We just haven't had the time to do much other than pull the list of names from their database, along with their addresses, credit card details and the code which is attached to each order."

"And that was the easy part." Connie interjected again.

Jo withheld the smile that was threatening to break out on her face, only the two of them could consider the easy part to be breaking into an encrypted database and pulling out all that information. Not for the first time she was glad that they were both working for the state, rather than plying their trade on the private market. "That's where I thought I could help." She looked across at the two of them again. "If you could set me up on a computer in here where I'm not likely to have people coming up to me and questioning me all the time, then I could do the search leaving you two to get on with whatever it is you're supposed to be doing."

"Well its certainly feasible." Malcolm murmured, rubbing his hand across his chin while in thought.

"It'll potentially be hour upon hour of utter boredom." Connie cut across the top of him. "Given the only clue we have now is the picture itself, you'll have to wade through their photo database to find the one that matches and there are quite literally millions of files."

"It's not as bad as all that." Malcolm interrupted hastily, spotting the look of horror on Jo's face. "While there are millions of prints, we can order them by date and by choosing a window initially of April to June which is two weeks before Harry received the card and the timeframe when we think it was most likely to have been created, then it narrows it down to around 40,000 images."

Jo gulped, "only 40,000," she said merrily, not letting her trepidation sound in her voice, "it'll be a breeze."

"Are you sure you're up to this?" Connie asked not unkindly, while she and Jo would never have much in common, she felt for her and the horrors she had been through.

"Yes," Jo nodded firmly while clutching her arms around her body, "if nothing else, it'll keep my mind of other things."

Malcolm lifted a warning eyebrow to Connie not to say anything else. While he was used to the direct and blunt manner the Analyst spoke in, Jo was not and she was also currently a shadow of her former self. "Well then," he said with a beaming smile, "give me five minutes to get you set up and logged on and we'll be good to go."

"Is Harry around?" Jo queried. "It's just that Adam mentioned that I wasn't to tell Harry I knew anything so..."

"He's over in Whitehall at a meeting with the Home Secretary at the moment," Malcolm said, "he's not due back for a couple of hours at least."

"And even when he does return, he's hardly likely to pop in here," Connie said waspishly.

"To which we are eternally thankful for," Malcolm smiled, raising his eyes conspiratorially at Jo, "it gives us the peace and quiet to get on with our work."

"Well..."

Jo cleared her throat before Connie let her feelings be known about Harry's lack of visits to the forgery suite. "How about I go and make us all a hot drink," she said, indicating the half empty mug on Connie's desk, "then by the time I get back, you can talk me through what I need to do and you can get on with your work." Without waiting for an answer she turned and after opening the door made her way quickly to the kitchen, not wanting to talk to anyone else. As much as she hated to admit it to herself, the little spark that had lit when she had realised the link from the postcard to _Evolve_ , was burning suddenly brighter as she realised she was looking forward to the challenge of finding out more answers. She wasn't ready to return to the Grid properly, not just yet, she thought to herself, but the idea wasn't as abhorrent to her as it had been a few days ago.

* * *

"Thank you Sir and have a good evening yourself." Harry's smile slipped away the second he closed the door to the Home Secretary's office. He'd been cooped up in there alongside a delegation from the Russian Embassy as details and deals were thrashed out for the imminent swap of a Russian spy currently being held at a Detention Centre in Colchester and Lucas North, the spy the Russians had captured eight years previously and who no doubt hadn't been kept in anyway near as favourable conditions as his Russian counterpart had. Harry still rankled over the way Blake had held the meeting, a politician to the last, the insinuation had been that they wouldn't have to be letting a Russian spy go free, despite getting virtually no intel out of him during the last five years of his six year incarceration, if Harry had managed to keep his Officers under control at the time and the Russians hadn't stumbled across the valuable intelligence that had led to North's capture. Harry pursed his lips, still deep in thought as he strode along the corridor; it still puzzled him to this day, how the Russians had come across that highly sensitive and confidential information, information that only a very select few Officers had been privy too. It had been put down to a sheer stroke of luck on their part at the time, but Harry still harboured niggling doubts about that and still felt guilty that one of his own had spent the last eight years of his life languishing in a Russian cell.

"Harry!"

He stopped in his tracks at the voice that rang loud and clear down the hallway, turning round slowly as he recognised the voice that he had hoped he'd never hear again in his lifetime. "Oliver," he uttered coldly as the other man drew closer to him, "I heard you were back."

Mace stuck out his right hand as he reached Harry, before lowering it again to his side a few moments later when he realised that Harry wouldn't be shaking his hand. He looked pointedly down at Harry, "So that's how it's going to be is it?" He uttered with a slightly amused smug grin on his face. "Can't we let bygones be bygones?"

Harry looked at him in disgust. "If it was up to me, you'd be dining at Her Majesty's Pleasure for the rest of your life rather than swanning round Whitehall as if nothing had happened."

"Tut Tut Harry, I really thought you would have got over all of that malarkey around Cotterdam by now." He raised a eyebrow archly, "I mean it's not as if anyone actually died."

"Didn't they?"

"Well not anyone who actually matters, and from what I hear, your little Analyst can be included in those figures. Her death faked with her spirited off to France to live in exile like so many burned spies before her."

"Her life as she knew it, taken away from her just because you wanted to get one over me you mean." Harry hissed, his voice laced with a quiet menace.

Mace held up both of his hands as if trying to calm Harry down. "It was all about the ends rather than the means old chap, she just happened to get in the way... or rather you did and she was obviously your rose tinted blind spot."

"My what!" Harry spluttered.

"I think that's what she was referred to as by at least one member of your team." Mace said condescendingly. "In your position you should really know better than to fall for the hired help."

Harry's nostrils flared as he took as step towards the other man, what he lacked in height he more than made up for in strength and Mace backed away slightly. "If you ever..."

"Oh come now Harry. I only did what you would have done in the same position, go after a person's weak spot to gain the result you want." His lips narrowed as he moved his head slightly closer to Harry's, "And its something you've done time and time again for your own advantage, so don't try and take the moral high ground with me because of what happened."

"The difference being..." Harry ground out.

"Don't fool yourself Harry. You know perfectly well I'm right." He looked at the other man, whose face was red with barely suppressed anger and continued on with a gleeful expression, "and from what Dickie told me, your Disciples are searching for the delightful Miss Evershed as we speak..."

Harry took a few steps forward until his face was mere inches away from Mace's with his hands balled into fists at his side. "You do not speak her name to me again, do you understand me."

"Now Harry." Mace said in a placatory fashion as he took another two steps back and suddenly hit the wall behind him.

"I mean it Oliver. If Ruth ever does come back and you so much as look at her in the wrong way then I won't be held responsible for my actions." Harry lifted his right hand and pointed his forefinger at Mace's face. "In fact that goes for any one of my team."

"Are you threatening me Harry?"

Whatever answer Harry was going to give was lost as the sound of approaching footsteps seeped into his consciousness and he took a step back. "No I'm not threatening you Oliver." He said clearly as he turned round to make his way back to Thames House. "I'm promising you. If you so much as breathe in their direction, then your Falklands posting will suddenly start to look as appealing as a stay at a five star resort in the Caribbean compared to what I'll do to you." With that and with Mace staring after him, he walked as calmly as he could down the corridor, trying not to display exactly how much seeing Oliver Mace again had unsettled him.

* * *

Adam looked up as Harry entered through the Pods with a face like thunder. It had been two days since Harry had bumped into Mace, and thanks to a passing Under-Secretary who had witnessed the tail end of their discussion, news of their discussion had spread like wildfire and the last version Adam had been regaled with, had had Mace lying on the floor while Harry stood over him slowly pulling on a pair of black leather gloves. That these rumours were being reported with glee, said a lot about the high regard Harry was held in and the low opinion most had of the former Head of the JIC.

"Connie and Malcolm in there?" Harry said stonily, pointing towards the closed door of the forgery suite.

"Ah yes... but." Adam cleared his throat.

"But what ... something in there that I might not expect?" Harry said in a deceptively jovial manner, "or rather someone.."

"Harry." Adam began, as his boss made his way over and yanked the door open to where Jo, Malcolm and Connie were sat talking excitedly amongst themselves, although they quickly fell silent when they realised who was at the door. "Harry," Adam tried again after following the older man across the Grid, "this isn't what it looks like."

"And what does it look like," Harry whirled round suddenly so that he was suddenly face to face with Adam. "It looks to me as if Miss Portman here has decided to re-join our team and no one had the decency to let me know." He turned around again to face the three incumbents of the room who all looked they had been caught with their hands in the biscuit tin. "How are you Jo?" He asked suddenly in a much warmer fashion.

Jo gulped, "You know, getting there," she said nervously.

"And what exactly is it you're working on in here with the door closed?"

"Harry," Adam interjected quickly, "this is my fault, I brought Jo into this."

"And it's a good job you did," Connie interjected waspishly, "otherwise we'd still be going round in circles."

Harry suddenly looked closely at the small image at the top left hand side of Jo's screen, recognising it immediately as the image on his postcard. "So despite what I asked of you," he began coldly, addressing Adam, Malcolm and Connie by staring at them all individually for a few moments, "and despite what you all promised about telling no one else, I suddenly find at least one of you lied to me."

"Harry," Adam started, once again getting no reaction that Harry had even heard him.

"Is it just one person, or am I going to find this on the bloody MI5 intranet tomorrow morning along with the days weather report and the daily cartoon strip." Harry's voice started off calmly but got louder and louder the longer he spoke.

"Harry," Adam interjected again loudly, closing the door to the forgery suite behind him after noticing a few curious glances coming through from the Grid. "I told Jo and if you calm down for 5 seconds I'll tell you exactly why."

Harry looked across at him, his lips pulled tightly together. "Go on then," he bit out sharply. "Why?"

"Oh for goodness sake," Connie said clearly getting up and facing Harry. "It doesn't matter why, you silly old fool. It just matters that we're ten steps closer to finding her than we were before she was told."

Jo kept her head down as Harry looked directly at her. "And how may I ask, did she help?"

"She saw the link between the card and the online supplier," Connie continued, "It was our only lead and one that we all completely missed... including yourself."

"What link?" Harry asked in a puzzled tone. Looking around at his team assembled before him.

"We didn't want to get your hopes up," Adam said quickly, "but Jo discovered that the postcard was bespoke, made out of a photo rather than a standard card you can buy in shops."

"So after we found that out." Malcolm jumped in and continued with the story. "We hacked into the company database and for the last two days, Jo has been trawling through picture after picture trying to find your one."

Harry looked in shock. "So you may be on the way to finding her..."

"No may about it." Malcolm beamed excitedly. "About thirty minutes ago Jo found the picture."

"Picture number 26,708." Jo said with a wide smile.

"You didn't tell me," Adam grinned in surprise.

"You were out at the time," Connie chided, "so we matched the picture to the credit card that paid for it..."

"And we're now running a search across all the major credit cards," Malcolm indicated towards his and Connie's screens where lines upon line of data were scrolling past quickly.

"I don't know what to say." Harry said faintly, as he grabbed a chair from behind him and sat on it heavily.

Connie looked at him disapprovingly. "Thank you would be a good start," she uttered sardonically.

Harry looked at her and said nothing before turning to Jo. "Thank you," he said to her quietly and with meaning.

Jo nodded, a faint blush colouring her cheeks as Adam grinned and winked at her across the top of Harry's head. "I'm glad to have helped."

"So what name do we have?" Adam queried, but was cut off as Malcolm's computer let out a beeping tone as the data scrolling across the screen suddenly stopped.

Harry looked up at the sound. "What's happened? He asked, "has something gone wrong."

Malcolm looked over at him with an incredulous look on his face. "Quite the opposite I'd say." he exclaimed reading off the screen. "The credit card was used two days ago in Polis in Cyprus. in one of the café's there and the name on the card is Alison Ruth Evans." He looked round at them all, the joy on his face coming through clearly. "I think we've found her!"

TBC

A/N - Her Majesty's Pleasure for anyone outside the UK who hasn't heard the term before refers to the prisons within the UK (HMP). Thanks to everyone who read and reviewed the last chapter, hopefully this one went down okay as well, particularly as it seems they're finally getting somewhere! Any further reviews would be welcome


	6. Chapter 6

Once again thanks to everyone who reads and particularly those who review. It really does mean a lot. Some of the storyline in this chapter is taken from around episode 7.1 but is slightly condensed I think from what we saw on screen to fit in with the timeframe for this story.

xxx

"Are you all sorted for tonight?" Adam queried, as he walked straight into Harry's office through the partially open door.

"I'm going to get Malcolm to build me some kind of early warning system." Harry speculated, looking up from his desk where he had been signing off some files, rather than answering Adam's question

"Sorry?"

"A bell or a buzzer maybe, like they have in corner shops." Harry continued, "since you seem to have a medical problem affecting your ability to clench either one of your hands."

Adam looked perplexed, "I have absolutely no idea what you're talking about."

"This is my office, you have just walked through the door, proper protocol is to knock."

"Ahhh." Adam grinned widely at his bosses infuriated face. "You'd hate it if we did," he joked, "just think of all the hours of fun you'd miss out on, complaining about it!"

"Hmmm," Harry pondered to himself, one day he was going to set a booby trap on that door and who ever was unfortunate enough to walk through it, would get the shock of their life.

"Anyway," Adam continued, ignoring Harry's comments, "is everything sorted?"

Harry looked at him and nodded. "For the swap tonight? Yes, it's all arranged for eight o'clock at the usual spot. I'm taking Kaplan with me, he's done well so far and this will be good experience for him."

Adam tapped his finger against his lips in thought before he answered. "It will be. What are your plans for North?"

"We get him back here, we debrief him, the usual protocol." Harry sighed deeply. "Given what he's likely been through, it's going to take some time."

"Is he okay do you know?"

Harry shrugged his shoulders before leaning back in his chair to answer. "The reports we have had through indicate that he's held up considerably well, all things considered, especially given the length of time he was there. But no one can go through something like that and remain the person they were before."

"I guess, so. We'll just have to wait and see I suppose." He glanced out of Harry's office noticing the day to day goings on of the Grid, before walking to the door and sliding it shut, before clearing his throat to speak. "And what have you done about the other matter?"

Harry raised his eyebrow at Adam as the younger man took a seat across from him on the other side of his desk. "By other matter, I take it you mean Ruth." he said eventually.

"What else?" Adam quipped, before seeing the look on Harry's face. "It's been four days since Jo, Malcolm and Connie tracked what we thought was her down to Polis and two days since Malcolm confirmed our suspicions and proved that it was her. Thanks to them we have her place of work, her address... " he looked over at his boss, "what are you waiting for?"

Harry looked uncomfortable, "I can't just get up and leave." he began.

"No," Adam agreed, "you can't. I do get that... but at the same time you can't just wait forever for the right time, otherwise you'll be here all year."

Harry looked down at his desk, "I've been thinking," he began slowly.

"What?"

"Maybe I'm not the best person too..."

"Don't even try that." Adam cut in, a strong note of derision in his voice. "I thought you'd have wanted to be on the first flight out of here..."

"It's not all about what I want." Harry replied, a note of anger coming through. "We don't know what type of life Ruth has built for herself, whether she'll want to see faces from her past... if she's alone..."

Adam nodded slowly, he'd struggled to understand Harry's hesitation in setting off for Cyprus, but now he saw it very clearly. What had only recently been an idea, was now a definite and that was what was causing Harry to have second thoughts, not about Ruth, but more fear of what he might find. Once they'd found the link to Polis, Malcolm had spent his time rummaging around various databases, the whole exercise taking much longer that it would usually given that so much was written in Greek. After a couple of days of fruitless searching, he'd accessed the hospital's database and through pure chance, had accessed the staff records. It was this that proved once and for all that Alison Ruth Evans really was Ruth Evershed, as attached to the standard forms that were filled in, was a photo of her to be used on her day to day hospital ID pass. "We've been through this already," Adam said slowly, "regardless of what Ruth is up to at the moment, we owe it to her to let her know that she can have her old life back... if she wants it."

Harry rubbed his face with his hands, "I know all that," he sighed, "but maybe it would be better coming from someone else, someone other than me?"

Adam raised his eyebrows in consternation. "Someone else?"

"I was thinking of Jo..." Harry began, "she and Ruth always got on well."

"And how do you think that would make Ruth feel?" Adam asked, shaking his head slowly in disbelief.

Harry defended himself. "She and Ruth get on."

"You and I get on." Adam said exasperatedly, "when you're not being so obtuse. If the shoe was on the other foot and it was you that had gone into exile, would you really rather I came to get you rather than Ruth?"

"I hadn't really thought..."

"No you hadn't!" Adam said loudly before lowering his voice. "Look Harry, I get that you're scared about what you'll find out there."

"Scared?"

"Well maybe not scared," Adam clarified quickly, before starting again. "We don't know what Ruth is up to, she may have moved on from London have a whole new life... and a new partner and have no desire to return to this... But," Adam continued in a softer tone, noticing the look on Harry's face and realising that he'd just put voice to the older mans greatest fear and the very reason he was hedging on going to Cyprus, "that may not be the case at all. And we won't know until we speak to her. And the person that needs to speak to her, is you Harry."

"Maybe."

"There's no maybe about it." Adam said gently. "Think how Ruth will feel if she is over there, all alone, missing you and then she finds out that you've sent Jo, because you couldn't be bothered taking a couple of days off work to come for her yourself."

"I really don't think that's how she'd see it." Harry protested.

"It's exactly how she'd see it." Adam countered, "anyone would."

Harry leaned back in his chair and leant his head back to face the ceiling, "I suppose you may be right," he exhaled.

"There's no suppose about it." Adam said cheekily, "and now that we've agreed on that, I suppose it's time to let you know, that you're expected on the flight leaving Brize Norton for the RAF base on Cyprus at nineteen hundred hours on Friday night."

Harry sat up straight, "I'm sorry."

Adam stood up and grinned widely as he made his way to the door. "If we left if up to you, you'd be faffing around until Christmas."

"I don't faff."

Adam ignored him. "A Hercules is going over on a routine flight and a driver will collect you from the RAF base at Akrotiri when you arrive and drive you over to Polis."

"I can't just leave," Harry muttered indignantly.

"You can and you will. Everything is sorted; Connie has booked you a room at a nice hotel there close to Ruth's place and close to the hospital." Adam folded his arms and leant against the doorframe. "Take a long weekend off, we can manage things here."

"In case it's escaped your attention, it's Remembrance weekend and we already have threats being made against the Queen. Plus Lucas..."

"And I can manage," Adam said with a smile. "Section D isn't just you Harry, it's a whole team of people and no matter what's thrown at us, we'll cope. Friday is three days away, we'll sort something out, both around Lucas and the Remembrance Sunday service."

Harry sighed, knowing when he was beaten. "Fine."

Adam slid open the door, "You need to be at Brize Norton by six o'clock on Friday night. Wing Commander Matthews will be expecting you. Don't forget your passport...or Ruth's for that matter." Were his last words as he exited the office with a big grin on his face hidden from Harry's view.

* * *

"So what's she like?" Connie looked over at Malcolm expectantly, her glasses perched halfway down her nose.

"What's who like? Lucas?" Malcolm replied, only half listening, focused as he was on the search around the threats at the Cenotaph.

"Not Lucas, I know what Lucas was like, I worked with him as well once upon a time," Connie replied bitingly. "And last I checked, Lucas was a he not a she. What's she like, Ruth?"

Malcolm looked up, "what do you want to know? She's an Intelligence Analyst, or was when she left. Speaks ten or so languages and..."

Connie sighed heavily, "Malcolm," she began, "for someone who really is quite bright, sometimes you can be incredibly dense."

Malcolm looked over at her, a gleam of amusement in his eye. "What you actually mean is, what is it about her that Harry fell for?"

Connie shuffled uncomfortably in her seat for a second. "I wouldn't have been quite so blunt."

"You blunt, never!" Malcolm raised his eyebrow at her with a small smile.

"It's just from the photo, she wouldn't seem to be Harry's type."

"I wouldn't know what Harry's type is?" He replied enigmatically.

"You understand perfectly well what I mean."

Malcolm looked across at her, she'd been tireless in helping him search for Ruth, even assisting him in wading through databases in Greek once they'd identified Polis as Ruth's likely location, though neither of them spoke or read it and had to depend on looking for likenesses of words and shapes within the Greek alphabet. He decided to give her some leeway. "To be honest Connie, she probably isn't..." he checked himself, "wasn't his type. They worked together for a few years and though it was obvious that there was a real connection there and that they were close, it was only when I heard that they'd been out to dinner together, that it struck me how well they worked together as a couple."

Connie looked curious, "In what way?"

Malcolm shrugged imperceptibly. "It's hard to put a finger on," he said quietly. "She's fiercely intelligent and she wasn't afraid to push him or challenge him," he smiled at the memory, "she had a way of making him think about things in a different way and he liked that. I think it's a meeting of minds as much as anything, they had this annoying habit of finishing off each others sentences."

"And for her?"

"I don't know. He's much older than her, but Ruth in many ways, was older than her time. She became his confidant on the Grid very quickly, and I think he let her see the side of him that no one else really gets to see." Malcolm looked over at Connie. "Whatever it was between them, it was mutual, they adored each other, that much was crystal clear at the end. When she left, the Cotterdam incident, they were both determined to do anything they could to save the other, each gave themselves very little thought."

"Well let's hope for Harry's sake that the passage of time hasn't altered her affections." Connie said with a small grin, turning away from Malcolm to answer her phone which had just started ringing.

* * *

Harry stepped out of the café in Polis' town centre into the warm sunshine dressed in a shirt and some casual trousers. Despite it being November and only nine thirty in the morning, it was still warm enough to walk around in shirt sleeves and he welcomed the feeling of sun on his face. He'd arrived in Polis in the early hours of the morning, checking into the small hotel that had been booked for him and despite the feeling of butterflies in his stomach, which he wouldn't admit to even under torture, he fell asleep the second his head hit the pillow.

He'd left all the documents in the safe in his room that morning and after a coffee and a light breakfast, he made his way over to Ruth's flat, following the detailed map that Malcolm had printed out for him, trepidation his companion for each and every step. After a short five minute stroll through the narrow, picturesque streets, he found himself outside Ruth's flat. It was in a small block, just off a square where a farmers market was currently being held. Breathing deeply in an attempt to settle his nerves and drive away the feeling of nausea, he knocked at the door, twice and in quick succession. As soon as he did, the worries came, he should have phoned first, someone else should have phoned first, Jo would have been a better option to do this and his worst fear of all, that the door wouldn't be opened by Ruth, but by someone else, another man.

That didn't happen, in fact nothing did. Harry waited thirty seconds for an answer and when none came he tried again. A further minute passed before he exhaled heavily, half in relief and made his way away from the flat and over to the small market. Her not being in hadn't been part of his plan, but on the plus side, it gave him a little more time to try and work out exactly what he wanted to say to her. The last few days had been hectic, what with threats against the monarch and Lucas' return to London and if it hadn't been for Adam virtually pushing him into his car and ordering his driver to take him to Brize Norton, then he would have likely delayed the trip for a week... and then probably another week. He sighed to himself as he suddenly realised how right Adam had been, he was scared of Ruth's reaction, of what he'd find. His feet led him through the square and he followed the signs for the waterfront, hoping a walk along the seafront would clear his head and give him some ideas of what to say. He was so caught up in his own mind that he didn't realise he was walking past the entrance to the small hospital until a movement suddenly caught his eye.

What it was about that movement that made him stop he didn't know, some kind of sixth sense or spy sense he reasoned, but he turned round quickly, as out of a door around 25 metres away came Ruth walking next to a tall dark haired man in a white coat. A Doctor he quickly surmised, as the pair he was watching stopped as the dark haired man pointed something out her on the ground and they both laughed. He felt a spasm of pain go through him as Ruth reached out and touched the Doctors arm lightly, but he couldn't move as he drank in the first sight of her he'd had in nineteen months. "Ruth," he breathed out, almost inaudibly.

There was absolutely no way she could have heard him from that distance, but from the second he spoke, he noticed a slight change in her demeanour as she dropped her hand from the Doctors arm and looked straight at him. Although he was too far away to hear her, he noticed her face drop slightly in shock and her lips move involuntarily to form his name. "Harry..."

TBC


	7. Chapter 7

Thanks once again to everyone who is continuing to read this story and a special thanks to everyone who makes time to review. It's nice to know people are reading and enjoying this. Now on we go...

xxxx

"Ruth... Ruth, are you okay?" George's voice was filled with concern as he took in the scene in front of him, Ruth and a man he was sure he hadn't seen before, both looking at each other in a state of shocked bemusement.

Ruth belatedly heard George's voice from the side of her and nodded her head, her eyes still fixed on Harry who was standing looking at her, appearing almost as shocked as she presumed she was at that moment. "I erm... I think so," she uttered quietly, while her mind started racing at a hundred miles an hour. Was something wrong? How had he found her? Was she in danger? Was this just all a bizarre coincidence? Was it really Harry?

"Are you sure? You look like you've seen a ghost."

Ruth turned to face him briefly, "I'm fine honestly," she quickly checked back to see if Harry was still stood where she had last seen him, still half convinced that he was a trick of her imagination and would disappear the second she took her eyes off him. "You go back inside, I'll be back in soon, I just need too..."

George gestured over towards Harry who was still standing in the same spot. "Is this something to do with him?"

"Please George," Ruth looked at him again briefly, "go back inside." Her heart was beating faster as Harry continued to hold his ground making no attempt to come to her, "I'll come in shortly," she reiterated. Not waiting for his answer she started to make her way over to where Harry stood, just inside the entrance to the hospital grounds. He looked well she conceded to herself and there was a small hint of a smile on his face which made the whorls of anxiety in her stomach settle slightly, he wouldn't be smiling if there was any danger surely. When she was within a few feet of him she stopped. "Harry..." she began.

"Hello Ruth."

She looked around quickly, still half expecting to see people running towards her, find herself trapped. "What are you... I mean how did you... Why are you here?"

Harry took the last question knowing they all accounted to pretty much the same thing. "I came to find you." He answered simply.

"I don't understand, as far as you're concerned I'm supposed to be dead!" She stuttered, her words falling over each other as she tried to get a grasp on the situation.

He smiled gently at her, taking in her overall appearance. "You look very well for a dead person."

"Harry!"

He took a step or two closer to her, "it's fine, its all over."

"What do you mean it's all over? It can't be..."

Harry smiled again in what he hoped was a reassuring manner. Ruth looked like a rabbit caught in the headlights, looks of shock, surprise, anger, happiness all running across her face simultaneously. He hadn't expected her to run into his arms, but he had been hoping for a slightly warmer welcome. He glanced over to where the Doctor was still stood watching them, watching Ruth he realised suddenly as a wave of jealousy went through him. "Is there somewhere we can talk?" He looked at George pointedly, "somewhere quiet where we won't be disturbed."

Ruth ignored his question. "How can it all be over?" she whispered to herself, a thundering sound echoing through her head which she belatedly realised was panic; she took a few deep breaths to try and calm herself and distance herself from the situation. before lifting her hand to her mouth as Harry's words finally started to sink in. "Is it really all over?"

He nodded. "It really is all over," he reassured her, "and I promise you that you're not in any danger. I wouldn't be here if I thought that was even a possibility."

Ruth looked down at the ground trying to get her jumbled thoughts into some kind of order. Her brain, usually so used to making sense out of the abstract, was struggling to keep up with what was happening and the implications around Harry's words. "I just … I don't..." she swallowed, trying to find her voice, but yet not quite knowing what to say.

"Come with me Ruth." Harry urged, recognising her responses having witnessed other people being brought back from deep cover over the years. The sense of bewilderment coming from Ruth was palpable. "We need to go somewhere private to talk and then I can explain everything."

Ruth took a few more deep breaths while she considered her answer, "I can't," she said at length, knowing that she needed time to herself to get her head around Harry's revelations. "Not yet anyway."

"You can't?"

Ruth looked at him, feeling her heart rate returning to something like normal while she did so. "I'm at work," she explained briefly, feeling it was as good as an excuse as any to get her some time alone. "I only came outside to get a breath of fresh air and then all this... you happened. Did you know I worked here?"

"Yes," Harry nodded, "but in all honesty, I'd briefly forgotten. I was just on my way to the waterfront." He grinned ruefully at her, "I was trying to work out exactly what I was going to say to you when I saw you... you caught me by surprise suddenly walking out of that door."

Ruth smiled swiftly, despite his outward appearance, he was clearly as affected by seeing her again as she was him; his face always was at its most inscrutable when he was under significant pressure. "How did you find me?"

Harry glanced at George again. "It's a long story... there's an awful lot I have to tell you, there will be a lot for you to take in."

"But you're absolutely sure I'm not in any danger?" She reiterated her earlier comments as another wave of panic suddenly overtook her.

"No, no danger at all... although I feel I may be."

Ruth looked at him curiously, not understanding. "I'm sorry?"

"Your doctor friend." Harry indicated over towards George where he was still stood watching them intently, though far enough away that he wouldn't be able to hear their conversation.

Ruth turned around quickly noticing that Harry was right and sighed inwardly. "He's just worried, that's all."

"About you?"

"Harry... I haven't seen you for a long time, I never expected to see you again. I was a little startled when I first saw you and George has obviously picked up on that."

"You're close to him?" He queried, knowing he had no real right to ask the question and not really knowing whether he actually wanted to hear her answer.

Ruth sighed, they hadn't seen each other for nearly two years, she still had no real idea what he was doing here and despite what he said, after spending twenty months in exile she was still scared of being found and yet here they were, dancing around things once again as if nothing had changed. "He's a friend," she said quietly, "they've been rather in short supply over the last couple of years." She added with an edge to her voice.

Harry looked down at his feet shamefaced, "I'm sorry," he apologised quietly. "This must all be a huge shock to you... and as you can probably guess, my plan of what I should actually say to you hadn't got much past hello."

She smiled slightly at the obvious truth in his words. "I still don't really understand what's happening here Harry."

"Like I said."

"Yes, I know we need to talk... but this isn't either the time or the place."

"Surely you can get off work?"

Ruth shook her head. "They're short staffed, that's why I'm working today."

"But..."

"But nothing Harry." She looked at him, willing him to understand that she needed time alone to try and make sense of everything that had been said in the last ten minutes. "I finish at three this afternoon. Why don't you come by this evening and I'll make us something to eat and we can talk then... I take it you're not flying back just yet?"

Harry shook his head, "my flight is scheduled for Monday."

"Well come by about six and we can go over everything then. We won't be disturbed that way."

"Six?"

She nodded, "I'm presuming since you know where I work, you also already know where I live?"

"That was my first port of call this morning." Harry admitted.

"Well then I'll see you tonight."

"Are you sure you can't finish now," he made one last try to persuade her, not sure that he could wait that long to see her again. "It's just clerical work you do I believe? Surely that can wait?"

"Harry", she bit out angrily, before noticing the anguished look on his face and softening her tone. "I know we need to speak, but I've got a lot to get my head around already and I don't know the half of it, I need a little time."

Impulsively he stepped forward and took her hand briefly, want to feel her skin on his if only for a moment. "Okay, tonight it is." he agreed. "You're looking well," he added with a smile, "I'm glad."

She nodded looking at him up and down. "You too, I'm glad to see you managed not to get shot in my absence."

Harry bit his lip at her words, there would be time enough for talking this evening. Ruth was probably right, she usually was he thought to himself wryly, they could both do with a little space to get their heads around seeing each other again. He squeezed her hand once more before letting it go, "I'll see you tonight then." He promised softly, turning away from her.

She smiled at him. "Tonight." She confirmed. "Oh and Harry..." she added as he started to walk away, "I really am glad to see you again."

* * *

"You should phone Harry." Connie said, following Adam back to Harry's office. "He said to keep him informed."

"There is absolutely no reason to speak with him." Adam said firmly. "Everything is under control."

Connie looked at him over her reading glasses, her face not masking her thoughts. "He's been out of the country five minutes and you've restored Lucas to active duty, despite what Harry has said about that over the last few days."

"In case you haven't noticed, we're short-staffed at the moment Connie. So unless you fancy getting back into your field clobber and out from behind a desk then..."

"Don't be impertinent Adam, it doesn't suit you."

Adam raised his eyebrows at her comment and bit back a smile. He'd often thought that Connie spoke to Harry like she was his big sister and now he was getting the same treatment, only this time it was the disapproving Aunt. "Lucas needs to be back in the field," he explained patiently, not for the first time that day. "It's the only way he's going to find out if he's still got what it takes and it'll focus his mind against what he's just been through."

"Harry wouldn't approve."

"Well Harry's not here." Connie opened her mouth to speak again and he continued speaking quickly, "and neither I, nor anyone else will be ringing him unless there is an absolute need to." Adam looked down at Connie who had a disapproving look on her face. "Is that clear?"

"But..."

"No buts. Harry hasn't had time off in a long time and deserves in now. The last thing he needs when he's hopefully trying to square things with Ruth, is to be called about every minor detail here."

"I'd hardly call this a minor detail." Connie huffed. "Lucas is still far too close to Arkady Kachimov if you want my opinion."

"I don't." Adam said with a quick grin, lightening the harshness of his words. "Look Connie, whether you agree with it or not, Harry left me in charge of the Section. Kaplan is still pretty green despite the aptitude he's shown over the last few months; having someone like Lucas partner up with him over the next couple of days will be useful... Plus with Jo and Harry away for various reasons it's good to have him back. And as for his relationship with Kachimov, close isn't the word I'd use."

"Well I still think..." What ever else Connie was going to say was lost as Adam's phone started ringing and he turned away quickly, sighing in dismay when he saw the name on the screen.

"Harry," he said quickly, "is everything okay?" He could see Connie's ears prick up as Harry began to speak and he berated himself internally for using his name. In his opinion, Connie was far too curious for her own good and for some reason, which he had yet to discover, seemed to have an unhealthy interest in Lucas and his Russian captors. "And is she okay?" he continued the conversation, smiling when he heard Harry's answer. "Here? Yes all's fine. We've done multiple sweeps of the Cenotaph and Kaplan is out with Jones, Armstrong and a couple of others trying to track down Private Sullivan. ….. No, nothing else is happening, it's all under control... Harry, honestly, there's nothing at all for you to worry about... I'm going to say goodbye now and I don't expect to hear from you again until I see you back here sometime Monday, or later if you decide to stay longer." he added with a cheeky grin. "Yes goodbye Harry and say hello to Ruth from me." He disconnected the call and looked straight at Connie's accusatory gaze. "What?"

"You know what."

"I meant it Connie, as far as Harry is concerned, unless Armageddon happens, then he hears nothing from us. Is that understood?"

"It that's what you insist on." she said frostily, mutiny in her eyes for a moment. "I take from what I overheard that he's found her?"

"Ruth?" He nodded, glad to be on slightly safer ground. "He has, they're meeting later."

"Is that it?"

Adam shrugged. "He didn't say much else. Now unless there's anything else Connie, I have work to be getting on with even if you don't."

* * *

Ruth was staring out of the window watching people milling past on the pathways outside the hospital but not really taking anything in. Her mind was in turmoil and although she had insisted with Harry that she needed time to get her head around his sudden reappearance and the apparent realisation that for some reason she no longer needed to be in exile, she had realised quickly once she'd gone back inside the hospital, that she had made the wrong decision. She had a multitude of questions flying through her head and no way of getting any answers until she saw Harry tonight. Her thoughts were suddenly interrupted by a deep voice.

"Penny for them?"

"Sorry?" She turned round, slightly bemused.

"A penny for your thoughts." George was leaning against the doorframe a look of concern on his face. She had brushed off his questions earlier in the day while he'd fortunately been quickly distracted by a patient emergency leaving her largely to her own devices... which had involved a lot of thinking and not much actual work.

She smiled weakly. "Sorry, I'm a little slow on the uptake today."

"Is everything all right Ruth... that man who was here earlier, he wasn't threatening you?"

"Threatening me!" Ruth let out an unconscious snort of laughter. "No, not at all."

"Well then?"

She sighed, knowing he deserved an explanation, but not wanting to give too much away. "He's someone I knew a long time ago, we were close. I never thought I'd see him again, that's all."

"You were lovers?"

"What? No," Ruth said firmly, slightly taken aback by his directness. "We used to work together, he was my boss."

"I thought.. The way you looked at each other," he began, before changing his line of questioning. "You never did tell me what you did for work in England?" he asked curiously.

"No I didn't." she said quietly.

He sensed that now was not the time to push her and quickly changed the subject. "You're still coming over for dinner this evening?" he asked. "Nico is looking forward to seeing you again."

Her face fell quickly. "I completely forgot. I can't, I'm sorry." She looked up at him hoping he'd understand. "I need to see Harry tonight, we need to talk."

"Harry..." George looked straight at her, suddenly no longer leaning against the door frame but rather stood up straight. "Harry, the man you told me about a couple of weeks ago?"

Ruth closed her eyes as she realised her own stupidity; over dinner one evening George had told her about his late wife and though she had largely skirted around any details when replying to his questions, she had admitted that the man she had loved and lost had been called Harry. "Yes, but..."

"You've just told me that you weren't lovers?"

"It was complicated." She said with a deep sigh, rueing her decision to try and be honest with him. "In fact, complicated, as a word, really doesn't do justice to what Harry and I were."

* * *

Harry retraced his steps of earlier that morning as he made his way to Ruth's flat, clutching the documentation he'd brought with him and two bottles of wine, one red and one white, not knowing which she preferred nowadays. He'd spent the afternoon walking and thinking, enjoying the feeling of sunshine on his face, but simultaneously fretting about the evening ahead, Ruth and the goings on of the Grid in London. His worries on that front had been lessened by a quick call to Adam, leaving him with far too much time to ponder on the evening ahead.

He reached her door five minutes earlier than the time she'd stipulated and wondered whether to take a quick turn around the nearby square or to knock early. The nerves he'd felt earlier in the day had doubled in their intensity and he took a deep breath trying to calm himself down; he'd even worried about what to wear, something which had never concerned him in the past, finally settling on a pair of dark trousers, a blue shirt and a blazer, as though the days were still warm the nights were noticeably cooler. His decision was taken out of his hands as before doing anything the door opened as though Ruth been looking out for his arrival and she appeared, smiling shyly at him. "Hi," she said quietly.

He smiled warmly back at her in lieu of a greeting, quickly proffering the wine towards her. "These are for you," he offered, "my contribution to the meal."

"Thank you," she murmured with a gentle grin, as she stood back from her doorway, "please come in..."

TBC


	8. Chapter 8

Thank you once again to everyone who took some time out to read and review the last chapter. It really is much appreciated. Now to what you've all been waiting for and I'm hoping that it doesn't disappoint...

xxx

Harry stood in the small kitchen of Ruth's flat looking around curiously. It was relatively small with just two doors leading from the open plan lounge/kitchen area he had found himself in, which he presumed led to the bathroom and bedroom. Glancing past those he wandered over to a small set of french windows that led off the back of the lounge area to a small walled courtyard. "It's a nice place you have here," he said turning around to face her. "Have you been here long?"

Ruth had watched him as he'd entered her flat, noticing his tight smile and rightly surmised that he was as nervous about this evening as she was, and was therefore grounding himself in the familiar and mundane as they'd so often done in the past. "Just over a month, I rent it from someone I work with at the hospital."

"The Doctor you were with earlier?" he queried.

Ruth shook her head, "his name is George," she said softly, "but no. It belongs to one of the nurses, she lived here before she got married and they decided to keep it rather than selling it." She looked around with a half apologetic expression on her face. "Fortunately it came partly furnished, otherwise we'd be likely sitting on the floor this evening. "

Harry scanned the room briefly, noticing for the first time the square table with three chairs pushed under it, the two seater sofa, the small armchair and the coffee table which was piled high with books. "You don't have many belongings of your own then?" he asked.

Ruth raised her eyebrows at him in question and her voice was tart in her response. "Strangely enough Harry, I haven't really had either the cause or the opportunity to collect belongings over the last couple of years."

He looked at her as he suddenly realised what he'd said. "Sorry!" he apologised quickly, "that came out differently to how it was meant. I just….." he tailed off. "I'm curious that's all," he made his way over to her. "I'm sorry Ruth I really am. I'm strugg.."

She sighed. "No I'm sorry", she said quietly. "I didn't mean to snap. Your arrival here has me at sixes and sevens. My mind has been running wild all afternoon with what you're doing here and I'm a little touchy, that's all. "

Harry smiled down at her, "perhaps then, we should have a drink and start again." he said moving past her into the kitchen and picking up the corkscrew that was lying on the bench. "Red or white?"

"White would be lovely thanks."

He looked around quickly, "where are the glasses?"

"Just in the cupboard to your left." As he located the glasses and opened the wine she watched him carefully. He hadn't changed much since she'd left London she thought, his hair was maybe a little longer and there were perhaps a few more lines on his face, but he was still the same old Harry... and she was still the same old Ruth if what had so far occurred this evening was used as evidence. The last time they'd seen and spoken to each other, apart from their brief meeting this morning, had been their painful goodbye on the wharf in London, yet here they were, twenty months later, finding refuge in the day to day rather than anything emotional. It was a guard she now recognised, and she was as guilty of it as Harry was, if not more. Neither of them had ever been particularly emotionally forthright, but on the occasions Harry had tried in the past, she had shut him out.

"Are you okay?" Ruth's mind was brought back to the present by Harry's words, "you looked like you were away with the fairies for a moment there," he commented dryly, passing her a glass of wine.

She took a sip before answering, not quite sure how to convey what she wanted to say. "I'm fine," she answered with a gentle smile, "I suppose I'm just finding all this slightly surreal. This time yesterday I never thought I'd see you again and now here you are... in my home."

Harry nodded, she'd been slightly skittish since he'd arrived and he'd put it down to the nerves that he presumed she was also feeling; but it had struck him in the last couple of minutes that while he'd had close to two months to get his head around seeing her again, his arrival had been like a bolt from the blue for her. "You must have plenty of questions." he acknowledged as he shrugged his jacket off and hung it over the back of one of the chair after first taking a small package out of the breast pocket. "But before you do, and I promise I'll try and answer anything you ask," he added at her quizzical look, "this is yours," he said gently, handing her the sealed envelope.

She looked at him curiously, setting her glass down on the kitchen bench. "What is it?"

"Go ahead and open it." he prompted.

She sat down at the small table and slipped open the small package to reveal a British passport. She looked over at him with the passport in her hand. "I don't understand... " she began.

He moved to sit next to her, bringing both glasses of wine with him as he did so. "Look at the last page."

She opened it up, quickly turning to the identification page. "How..." she asked, looking at him in shock, "how did you manage to get this?"

"I meant what I said earlier at the hospital Ruth, It's all over." He moved his hand over and placed it on her shoulder in a gesture of comfort, "it's been proven beyond doubt to the powers that be, that you had no part in the extradition of prisoners for torture and since your supposed 'death'," he moved his hand away from her and mimicked speech marks as he spoke, "was never really believed by the higher echelons of the Security Services and Government, they felt it was only really appropriate to try and give you your name and your life back."

"But..." Ruth looked at him in bewilderment. "How can you just reverse a death?"

"It's not this first time something like this has happened," Harry explained, "I'll try and clarify as much as I can but..."

"Have you been trying to prove this... all this time?" Ruth looked at him suddenly with wide eyes.

He thought about lying to her for a moment, before shaking his head with a slightly shamed face. "No, I'm sorry, if I'd have known that there was any way then I would have but..." He trailed off, not knowing quite what to say.

She looked over at him, his eyes downcast and looking down at the table and recognised it for the guilt he was feeling. Leaning over she took one of his hands in hers in what she hoped was a conciliatory gesture, letting him know that she didn't blame him in any way, "then how?"

"It's a long story," he sighed, relishing the feeling of her hand wrapped around his own as he took a large mouthful of his wine.

"Well we've got all night." Ruth began, before he words were interrupted by a shrill ringing from the kitchen. As Harry looked round in alarm she explained quickly. "Sorry, that's the timer for the food, dinner is ready." She stood up and made her way over to the oven. "You like Moussaka I hope?"

"There's not much I don't like," he said with a grin. The timer going off had somehow seemed to have diminished any tension in the room and he looed over as she took the dish out. "That looks and smells delicious. Is there anything I can do to help?"

'There's a salad in the fridge I prepared earlier, if you wouldn't mind getting that out and maybe topping up our wines, I'll get everything else sorted."

Three minutes later they were both sat back down, plates of food in front of them. As they ate, Harry gave her an overview of the events of the last couple of months, from his initial conversation with Dolby through to the return of Oliver Mace and how both the events both pre and post Cotterdam had been 'dealt with' leading to a number of occurrences behind the scenes, one of which had led to her getting her passport back, her criminal record wiped and her death expunged from the records. Answering the few questions she asked around this, he also filled her in on what had happened to him following her departure, including the frantic trip to Lebanon that he'd had to make to save Catherine after she'd been severely injured in a bomb attack in Beirut, but choosing to leave out being shot by Davey King.

Ruth's mind whirled with the implications of what he told her about Mace and Dolby, the story bringing back all the memories of treachery and deceit, secrets and lies that she thought she had left behind for good. "So what does this all mean for me?" She asked once Harry had finally finished speaking.

He moved his plate to the side while he considered what to say. They had finished their meal a long while ago but had lingered at the table talking and drinking their wine. "To all intents and purposes," he started quietly, "it means the last two years haven't existed..."

"Haven't existed!"

"From an official point of view," he added hastily, seeing the look on her face.

Ruth's lips curled in bemusement as she shook her head slowly. "Well that's fine then," she spluttered indignantly, "as long as that's the official line then who am I to complain!" She took the last mouthful of her drink before shaking the empty glass at Harry.

Able to recognise a hint when it was that blatant, he looked at the empty bottle in front of them and stood quickly while collecting their empty plates and taking them over to the small sink. "Ruth," he said as he opened the second bottle of wine, "just because that's the official perspective, it doesn't mean that's what we think." He sat back down and topped up her glass, "the sacrifice you made for me, for the service, for your country will never be forgotten by those that really matter."

Ruth took another quick drink, "I know, I know," She rubbed her hand against her forehead trying to make order of her thoughts. "So what does this mean for me in a practical sense?"

"It means that you're free to do whatever you want, go wherever you want and use your real name." He looked at her hesitantly, "it also means that there's a job waiting back for you in London should you want it... Section D hasn't been the same without you."

"A job but no home." Ruth murmured wistfully, looking down at the table.

"We can help you with that, with everything if that's what you choose."

"How did you find me," Ruth looked up at him, electing to ignore what he'd just said to her, "or have you all been keeping tabs on me since I disappeared? I really thought I'd left behind no clues," she raised her eyebrows momentarily in despair at herself. "I'm obviously not as good a spy as I thought I was."

"Finding you was anything but easy." Harry commented wryly, a little stung that she hadn't jumped at his offer to return to the Grid and return to London. "You were a very small needle in a very large haystack."

"So how?" She asked, a puzzled expression on her face.

"The postcard you sent me."

Ruth's face wrinkled in surprise, "the postcard? How...?"

Harry looked a little surprised. "You didn't do it as a clue to your whereabouts then?"

Ruth shook her head. "No." she said slowly. "I was just looking through some of the photo's I'd taken of Paris and the image I sent you reminded me of our dinner together," she looked at him sadly, blue eyes meeting brown. "I just wanted to say goodbye and let you know I was safe." They stared at each other for a few moments longer before Ruth broke the eye contact suddenly. "You found me through the company I used to make the postcard?" she guessed.

"Yes,"

"But that must have taken forever, how on earth did you..."

"I'm afraid I can't take all the credit." Harry admitted, "or any of it really. Malcolm, Connie and Jo did most of the grunt work... In fact it's all down to Jo that we found you at all. She was the one who recognised that it wasn't a standard postcard bought in a shop."

"Jo's seen the postcard?" Ruth's face coloured slightly as she recalled the words she'd written. Words she'd spent hours debating internally, trying to work out exactly what to say before sending.

"I'm sorry, I wasn't happy about it either but it was the only clue we had to go off?"

Ruth blushed a little more "We?"

Harry smiled bashfully. "You know Jo's part, but Adam Malcolm and Connie all helped extensively as well."

"Connie?" She asked curiously.

"The new Analyst." He replied quickly

"Ah my replacement."

"Never your replacement." Harry said softly reaching over and wrapping his fingers around hers. "She was someone Malcolm and I used to work with years ago."

Ruth nodded. Suddenly awash with emotions she cleared her throat, "and how are they all?"

Harry suddenly looked away, staring at the dark night sky through the windows of the french doors. "Adam and Malcolm are well," he began, "they send their regards and hope to see you in person soon."

"And Jo..." Ruth suddenly realised whose name had been missing as Harry recited how they'd tracked her down. "And Zaf, you haven't mentioned him at all."

Harry squeezed her hand gently, "Zaf passed away recently," he said softly, "he was captured and then killed."

Ruth pulled her hand away from his, covering her mouth with horror while tears started to pool in her eyes. "Not Zaf," she gulped, remembering the tall handsome man who had been so kind to her in her last few hours on British soil.

Harry moved quickly over to the kitchen tearing off a couple of pieces of kitchen roll before handing them to her," I'm sorry," he said quietly, "I don't have a handkerchief on me."

Ruth dabbed away at the tears in her eyes, "and Jo?" she asked. "You said she'd helped you find me. She's not dead as..."

Harry interjected quickly. "No, Jo's not dead," he cast his eyes around wondering just how much to tell her, "but she has been through a rough time, the same people who captured Zaf also captured, Jo and Adam. Adam coped with what happened a lot better than Jo did. They saw her as the weak link and they used that to their advantage..." Harry's voice tailed off. "Jo has really been through hell in recent times. Helping find you has been the only thing that's given her life purpose since then. She'd love to see you again."

Ruth nodded before standing quickly, "I'm sorry, I'm just going to pop to the bathroom."

Harry took another mouthful of his drink as he waited for Ruth, looking around the room curiously as he did so. Aside from the books on the table, there was very little to suggest that this was a home rather than a safe house, no photo's, no music, no pictures on the walls. He wandered over to the coffee table picking the top book up curiously, it was written in Greek he noticed in surprise as he leafed through it, as were all the books on the table aside from a Greek/English dictionary.

"I'm trying to learn," his concentration was interrupted as Ruth came back out having taken five minutes to compose herself and also wash away the tears from her face. "I thought since I live here now, I really should try and become fluent."

"You can read this?" he indicated towards the book with his hand, choosing to dismiss the comment about Polis being her home.

"In the main part," Ruth confirmed, "I studied Classics at Oxford..."

"Ahh, of course."

"I learnt enough Greek there to get by, though I was never fluent and I've been trying to pick it up again since I arrived here."

Harry nodded as he placed the book down on the pile. "And how long have you been here?" he questioned curiously. "I've told you what's been happening in London since you left, what happened to you?"

Ruth refilled her glass of wine before moving to sit on the sole armchair in the living area, gesturing to Harry that he should sit on the sofa. "There's not much to say really, I was dropped off at a small fishing port south of Calais and I spent my first few days there holed up, wondering what the hell I was going to do with the rest of my life."

"Oh Ruth..." He started

"Harry it's fine," she smiled at him tremulously, feeling the freedom and emotion of telling her story for the first time and actually being able to tell the truth. "Zaf had given me the name of a contact of his, ex DGSI I believe, who was based in Le Havre so I eventually worked my way down to him and he was able to arrange a new passport and identity for me, plus he gave me some more contacts and access to the money that I believed you sanctioned."

Harry nodded, "I wanted to give you the best possible chance," he said taking another sip of his wine. "I never knew where the money went, but gave it to Zaf and left it to him to sort it all out. I'm glad it got to you."

"Well thank you." She smiled, "it gave me the freedom I needed initially, not having to worry about food and where I was going to sleep. That money was a lifesaver in the early days."

"I take it he was the person who arranged your current alias?" Harry hit his knee with his fist in frustration, "if only I'd told Zaf to keep me fully informed," he started, "then..."

"It wouldn't have made any difference." Ruth cut in. "I kept the alias he gave me for a few months but I struggled with the name and I also thought it would be safer for me with another degree of separation so I switched identity again."

Harry looked at her puzzled. "The name?"

Michelle Campbell, she ran her hand up and down the stem of her wine glass in slight embarrassment. "I remembered it well enough but I couldn't react to it. I spent a couple of weeks in Paris about six weeks after I'd first arrived."

"Where you took the photo?"

She nodded before continuing, "then after a few months I'd moved down to the South of France and had made some acquaintances, yet when one of them called me or spotted me in the street and waved, I didn't react. I realised then, that I'd be safer if I could just call myself Ruth and Evans was close enough to Evershed to make it easy to remember. I just had to tell people that I preferred being called by my middle name rather than Alison my first name."

"So what happened next?" Harry queried, leaning forward in his seat.

"So I moved on, into Italy this time and used one of the contacts that Antoine had given me; Zaf's contact," she continued when she saw the question in his eyes, "and he helped set me up again, this time as Alison Ruth Evans. By this point my funds were starting to run out, but I managed to get work at an English language class for adults in Florence. I stayed there for another few months but then decided to move on again."

"What prompted that?" he asked softly.

She shrugged, "I don't know, it was a beautiful city, it just didn't feel like home."

Harry nodded understandingly. "So then what?"

"I kept moving East." Ruth continued her story, "I travelled across to Greece and after some time there I made my way into Turkey."

"And Cyprus?"

She took another sip of her wine before answering. "It was the furthest place East I could go while staying in Europe, it was also somewhere I wouldn't standout in for being British."

Harry smiled, "that makes sense," he commented. "And Cyprus... Polis, does this feel like home?"

Ruth lifted her thumb to her mouth, chewing on the edge of her nail nervously. "I don't know," she said at length, "the people are nice, I have a job and a place of my own."

"And the Doctor?"

"George," she looked at him in surprise, "what's he got to do with all this?"

"You seemed close when I first saw you." Harry muttered, not looking her in the eye.

Ruth rubbed her fingers across her eye. "He's been a good friend to me since I arrived here..." She started.

Harry cut in. "Are you seeing him?"

"Am I seeing him?" Ruth shook her head in disbelief, "what's that..."

"Forget I said anything." Harry said dismissively before standing abruptly. "I should be going," he glanced at his watch quickly, "it's getting late."

Ruth shook her head, annoyed at the direction the conversation had suddenly taken. "Okay then," she said angrily, "go."

He paused as he realised how she'd taken his words and actions and he berated himself internally for bringing up the bloody doctor. His jealous streak had won through while she'd been telling him of her travels, despite knowing that he had no stake on her and that she'd never expected to see him again. "I'll see you tomorrow," he said pleadingly, hoping that somehow she'd read his thoughts and understand, "thank you for dinner, it was delicious."

She nodded, "think nothing of it," she said tightly, knowing he was trying to make amends but not having a clue to the way his thought process was working.

"Have you made any decisions yet about what you're going to do?"

"I need sometime to think," Ruth said carefully, wrapping her arms around herself as they made their way slowly to the door.

Harry nodded sadly, the evening hadn't turned out quite as he'd hoped and it was largely down to his words and actions, he just hoped he hadn't ruined everything. He decided on one last push for the evening, "well just remember everyone on the Grid would love to see you again." he said with a small smile.

Ruth looked at him in disbelief. "I know, you've said several times." Her voice started to raise as she warmed to her theme, "Adam would like to see me, Connie would like to meet me, the Home Secretary wants to pass on his best wishes! Christ Harry..." She stopped and took a deep breath, noticing his confused face, "it seems everybody I knew over there wants me back, everybody really missed me... everybody that is, apart from the one person that I only really cared about." Tears started to pool in her eyes as she lowered her voice to a whisper. "I know I was shocked when I saw you this morning Harry. Seeing you again like that was something I've hoped for everyday since I left and I couldn't get my head around the fact that you'd come for me and it wasn't some kind of dream..."

"Ruth," Harry pleaded, "you..."

"Let me finish," she looked at him defiantly, determined to get her point across in a away that even he couldn't fail to misunderstand. "I don't care about anyone else, I don't care about Malcolm or Adam or Bob the photocopying guy, all you had to say was that you wanted me back, that you needed me back, and it wouldn't have even been a decision I needed to make."

Harry rubbed his hands across his face in despair, how the hell had he got this so wrong. He'd wanted to give her the space and time to think, to work things out in her own head, rather than making any grand gestures. "Of course I want you back," he said desperately, "I thought that that went without saying."

"Missing my analysis on the Grid." She said sarcastically, still wound up from the earlier comments.

"No ... well yes, but that's not the reason." He moved over to her, unwrapping her arms from around her body gently and then taking both her hands in his. "Ruth, look at me," he implored. "Do you remember the last thing you said to me before you left?"

She slowly raised her eyes to him, "I err..."

"You asked me to let you go," he whispered, both of his hands now curled round hers, while he looked her straight in the eye willing her to believe him. "I failed," he continued, "I failed miserably, I never let you go for a moment. Deep down I always hoped that we'd see each other again, that we would find away towards each other." He cleared his throat, "I know I'm not particularly good at anything emotional, but Ruth, you have to know that my feelings for you haven't changed one jot since we stood on that dock and said goodbye and I've missed you every single day that you've been away."

Ruth looked up at him as a smile started to creep across her face, "do you really mean that?"

He nodded, before deciding that words had got him into enough scrapes this evening already. He pulled her closer to him feeling her body mould against his, before lowering his mouth to hers, kissing her softly at first before deepening the kiss as he felt her hands leave his, as her arms moved to wrap themselves around his body.

TBC


	9. Chapter 9

Thanks once again to everyone who took the time to read and review this story, it really does mean a lot, especially those who take a few seconds to give feedback. This is likely to be the last update for a couple of weeks due to other stuff happening in the real world, but I'm aiming to be back in two weeks time.

xxxx

Adam made his way over to the kitchen yawning, he'd spent the night on the Grid trying to juggle multiple situations and not for the first time, he wondered how the hell Harry managed to keep his fingers in quite so many pies simultaneously. At the moment, his most pressing concern were the multiple threats being made against the Remembrance Sunday commemorations. The Cenotaph had been swept multiple times and he was now convinced that it wasn't that location that was the target but rather somewhere else. The problem then being that there were hundreds of smaller services happening in suburbs and areas all over London as well as the rest of the UK, and there was no way they had the manpower to search each and every one. He pinched his eyes together with thumb and forefinger, yawning loudly as he did so as he waited for the kettle to boil. Two hours kip on the sofa in Harry's office had taken the edge of his fatigue, but not much else.

"I thought you'd need one of these." Adam jumped slightly at the unexpected interruption and opened his eyes to see Malcolm stood in the entrance way to the kitchen holding out a large takeaway coffee to him. "Double shot!" he added.

"Malcolm, has anyone told you what an utter legend you are." Adam said walking over and taking the coffee from him with a wide grin. He took a sip and smiled blissfully as he felt the caffeine work its way through his system.

"You're the first today." Malcolm answered bashfully. "I also took the liberty of bringing you in a couple of bacon sandwiches as well, Connie's taken them into your office... well Harry's office, oh you know what I mean!"

Adam ignored the comments about the office and went straight for the pertinent question. "With brown sauce?" he asked hopefully.

Malcolm grinned. "Of course, can they be eaten any other way."

Adam took another sip of his drink. "You're a man after my own heart!" As he led the way out of the kitchen he glanced over the Grid, it was surprisingly busy for 7.40 on a Sunday morning but there seemed nothing that needed his urgent attention. "You and Connie will both join me I hope?" he asked, casting his head round to see Malcolm heading back towards his desk before stopping at his words and making his way back towards him. "I presume you also bought yourselves coffees and bacon sarnies as well?"

"I had my All Bran before leaving the house, but I did treat myself to a coffee," Malcolm answered briefly, glancing over towards Harry's glass walled office, "and it looks like Connie is already digging into hers."

Adam raised his eyebrows silently at Malcolm before heading through the office door, he was slightly surprised that Connie hadn't chosen to sit in Harry's chair to make a not so subtle point to him, but quickly figured that would be too brazen even for her. "Morning Connie," he said breezily, sitting down and quickly opening up the first of the two foil wrapped sandwiches inhaling happily the smell of bacon that was drifting up.

She nodded to him, her mouth already full and for a few moments silence reigned as breakfasts were devoured and Malcolm sipped happily at his drink. Finally hunger assuaged and the caffeine having done its job and pepped everyone up, Connie piped up with a small smirk, wiping the corner of her mouth with a paper napkin as she did so. "So has she arrived yet?' Her words were weighted with importance as if she knew what she was saying would have an impact.

Adam and Malcolm's head both swivelled to her as she spoke and Adam was glad for a brief second that Malcolm was obviously as much in the dark as he was over who 'she' was. "Has who arrived yet?" he asked testily. It was obvious from Connie's demeanour and the look on her face that she was playing with him, knew something that he didn't.

"Rangefinder." Connie took a small sip of her drink, her eyes darting between the two men, not wanting to miss a single reaction from either of them.

"Rangefinder?" Adam and Malcolm spoke in unison.

"Who or what is Rangefinder?" Malcolm asked quickly, noticing the look of bemusement on Adam's face and the widening smile on Connie's.

She took another big sip from her drink before answering, using it as a way to delay giving the answer she knew they were both keen to hear. "I thought Harry would have told you both," she answered slyly, "especially you Adam, what with the position he's put you in... and your previous dalliance with her."

Adam's face drained of colour. "Ros." he guessed at length, "Ros is Rangefinder and she's coming back?"

Connie nodded, a look of barely suppressed glee on her face. "You really didn't know?"

"Something you were damn well aware of." Malcolm said shortly, as Adam leaned back in his chair and covered his face with his hands.

"It looks like it was just me Harry trusted with this." Connie smiled and pushed her chair back, ready to move back to her own desk on the Grid now that she'd delivered her bombshell. "Rangefinder's... or Ros's if you'd prefer, work in Moscow is finished. She completed her operation and now that Lucas is back safely and her part in his repatriation is complete there's nothing left for her to do over there." She glanced at her watch quickly. "She should be arriving at some stage in the next couple of hours." Connie waved briefly at them both heading for the door. "I really am surprised Harry didn't fill you in on all this," she said as her parting shot.

Malcolm waited until he was sure she was out of their hearing. "Are you okay Adam?" he asked looking over at the younger man in concern.

Adam nodded as his hands dropped away from his face. "That bloody woman," he began tersely, "why's it always games with her?"

Malcolm sighed, "it's just Connie being Connie." he said at last. "You know how she is, it's just her way."

Adam pushed his chair away from his desk and began to slowly pace, his earlier shock and surprise quickly turning to anger. "I know, anything to get a bloody reaction and to score a few points." He pounded his fist into his hand as he moved around the office. "And she's right you know, why didn't Harry tell me, why her and not me?"

"I don't know." Malcolm shrugged helplessly. "Connie and her connections at the Russian Embassy were instrumental in getting Lucas out, if Ros was involved as well then it makes sense that Connie knew what was happening with her."

Adam sat back down wearily, "for someone who supposedly despises everything Russian bar Vodka, Connie has got a lot of knowledge of our Moscow friends."

"The old adage of keeping your friends close and your enemies closer I suppose." Malcolm answered.

Adam rubbed his hands across his face. "But I still don't understand why Harry wouldn't tell me as well," he complained. "Ros and I... well we were close before she left."

"And that's probably why he didn't say anything," Malcolm said gently. "He didn't want anything to distract you."

"And Ros turning up out of the blue wouldn't be a huge distraction?" Adam stormed loudly, before dropping his voice as he noticed a few startled looks from the Grid at his raised voice. "I've got the situation up in Manchester to contend with, heightened tensions in Northern Ireland and Lucas and Ben combing all over London trying to find what the hell is going on with these threats on the Remembrance Services today and Harry doesn't think it's a good idea to let me know that Ros..."

"He's been distracted himself lately," Malcolm cut in, "you know that. All this stuff with Ruth has thrown him."

"Well he'll know exactly how I bloody feel then." Adam shook his head with a look of disbelief on his face before grabbing his mobile from the desk and jacket from the back of the chair. "I'm going up to the roof for some fresh air," he said abruptly.

"Adam," Malcolm said warningly. "Don't do or say anything you'll regret later."

The younger man turned back as he shrugged on his coat. "I don't know what you're talking about," he said with a tight grimace. "I'm just off to make a quick phone call." With that he disappeared through the door. while Malcolm put his head in his hands, silently cursing Connie for setting the cat amongst the pigeons.

* * *

Harry squinted as he blearily opened his eyes and the late morning sunshine streaming through a small gap in the blinds hit him directly in the eye.

"Good morning." He turned his head to be met be met with the sight of Ruth dressed in a pair of cotton pyjamas and clutching a mug of something as though it was a lifeline standing a foot or so away from him. "I just came in to check, I thought you'd never wake up." she said shyly, her head dipping slightly as she spoke, managing not to make any eye contact with him.

He smiled softly as memories of the previous evening flooded back. A not so auspicious start had fortunately led to the two of them consuming two bottles of wine during dinner to offset the nerves they were both feeling, and he was sure that it was this that had led Ruth to be bold enough to speak her mind after he'd stumbled and fumbled over his words and meanings. One kiss on her doorstep had quickly led to another and then another, as they'd moved firstly back to the lounge area, before Ruth had taken his hand and led him towards her bedroom mumbling something about not wanting to let any more opportunities pass her by. His smile widened as he really couldn't recollect much more of her words, so caught up had he been in their embrace. "Morning," he replied as he pulled himself up into a seated position in the bed. "What time is it?"

"Just gone ten." Ruth answered with a small smirk, which she quickly hid behind her mug as Harry's face dropped.

"Ten!" He rubbed at his face in shock. "I haven't slept past seven in years, and even that I'd consider a lie in."

"Well there's two hours time difference to take into account." Ruth said with a note of humour lacing her words. It's not quite as bad as it seems."

Harry raised his eyebrows briefly in acknowledgement. "Please don't tell me you've spent the last few hours pottering around quietly listening to me snore?"

Ruth let out a small laugh. "No," she grinned hesitantly, "I only got up half an hour ago or so myself... besides you don't snore, or at least you didn't last night."

He smiled at her admission. "I'm sorry I didn't get to wake up with you."

Ruth blushed slightly, "well... I..."

"You're not regretting what we did last night are you?" Harry asked gently, seeing the look of indecision shadow her face.

She shook her head firmly. "No of course not."

He held out his hand to her and when she took it, he pulled her slowly towards the bed. "Are you sure? Your face said something quite different just then?"

"Honestly Harry, it's not that." She sat down on the side of the bed as he shuffled over slightly to make space for her. "It's still a little strange for me to get me head around, that's all. The last twenty-four hours have been like a roller coaster."

"Are you sure that's all it is?"

"Well I am feeling a little seedy from the wine last night as well."she confessed with a small grin. "I haven't had that much to drink in a long time."

"You don't think I took advan..." Harry tailed off, a slightly horrified expression on his face.

"Don't be daft. What we did last night, well it was lovely and I was a very willing participant, the wine just settled the nerves a little" she said quickly, seeing where his thoughts were taking him. "I'm glad I drank that much, otherwise it's very likely that I wouldn't have had the courage in the first place to say what I said last night and then we wouldn't have ended up in bed together. There's a lot to be said for Dutch courage!"

He nodded slightly in acknowledgement as a smile slid across his face at her response. "Well then, I'm very glad you did to, last night was wonderful. If we'd have left it up to me, God knows where we'd have ended up." He took the mug from Ruth's hand and took a mouthful of her tea wincing as he did so.

"I've stopped taking sugar in tea." she said with a small smile. "From your expression I can see that you still have it with one."

"You still remember?" Harry said, gladder than he would have possibly imagined that something so small would mean so much to him.

She coloured slightly again and tried to pull her hand away from his where he was still holding it but failing to do so. "What happened here?" she asked quietly, changed the subject of conversation softly as the fingers of her free hand traced a large purple bruise on his chest. "I saw it last night but there never seemed an appropriate time to ask."

"It would certainly have been a bit of a mood breaker." Harry said with a short laugh, "I was shot..."

"Shot?"

"I was wearing a vest," he answered quickly, at the look of horror on her face.

Ruth took in a deep breath trying to control her emotions. "When was this?" She asked shakily.

"A couple of weeks ago now."

"But you didn't say anything last night about it?

He shrugged slightly. "I'd forgotten all about it to be honest, it doesn't hurt anymore, the bruising just is taking a little longer to go down than I'd like."

"How did it..." she trailed off. "I'm sorry, I suppose I'm not allowed to ask questions like that now."

"You can ask me whatever you like." Harry said softly. "Never think that you can't. It was someone I knew once in Northern Ireland, someone I thought... hoped I'd never see again. Me being shot was the best outcome to the events... any alternative could have been catastrophic."

"But you weren't to know that he'd hit you in the chest." she said, her face pale as she traced the large bruise with her fingertips. "What if he'd gone for your head?"

"Then most unfortunately for me, I wouldn't be in this position with you now," he answered glibly.

"Harry!"

"Sorry," he squeezed her hand gently in acknowledgement. "He knew exactly what he was doing, a professional will always go for a body shot given the chance, it's only in the films that they go for the head, there's a much bigger mass to aim for if you go for the body and much more chance of success."

Ruth nodded, her lips pursed, tightly together. "I suppose so," she uttered quietly.

"It was a calculated risk Ruth and it worked, it's something I hope to never have to do again as it hurt like hell but..."

"But you had to do it." Ruth said ruefully, "I suppose I forgot about that side of things for a while."

"As you should have," Harry said gently, setting the mug of tea down beside him on the bedside cabinet and reaching out to her."You could always kiss it better," he said softly, "if it'd make you feel any better!"

Ruth giggled slightly at his words. "I hope that's not a chat up line you've used before," she laughed, "because it's absolutely terrible."

"I'm a little out of practice," he murmured, running his hand up and down her arm. "It's been quite a while since I've tried to chat someone up."

Ruth looked at him with a question in her eyes, "a while?" she queried softly.

He nodded, leaning forward to kiss her gently. "About twenty months," he whispered against her lips. "It was someone who worked for me, but she turned me down for a second date," his words were punctuated by soft kisses as she moved closer to him on the bed, one hand steadying her balance while the other moved to cup his cheek rubbing her fingers against the stubble she found there.

"Well she must have been a little stupid," she confided, as their kisses started to deepen.

RING RING... RING RING

They both jerked back suddenly as a phone started ringing somewhere in the bedroom. "That's mine," Harry groaned in frustration. "I'm sorry Ruth I'll have to get it. The Grid is under strict orders not to call me unless it's an emergency."

She nodded in understanding, despite the frustration she felt towards the caller. It seemed that no matter where he was, Harry was permanently on call. She moved away from him locating the phone in his trouser pockets where they were laying in a crumpled pile on her floor. She glanced at the screen as the ringing continued, "it's Adam," she said as she handed the phone over.

He smiled in thanks before pressing the button to answer. "This better be bloody good," he said harshly, "as I believe Six are currently looking for volunteers to work in their outpost in Irkutsk!"

TBC


	10. Chapter 10

Thanks once again to everyone who took the time to read and review the last chapter. Your input and thoughts are very helpful (and led to a small tweak of Ch 9) and any further reviews would be much appreciated. Now back to London and Cyprus!

xxxxxx

"That went well then?" Malcolm commented from the door to Harry's office where he had just witnessed Adam slamming down the desk phone after a brief, heated conversation with Harry.

Adam's only reply was a brief grunt as he ran his hands over his face, slowly shaking his head he did so and sinking further down into Harry's chair. "I've a bloody good mind to change every setting on this chair purely to piss him off when he gets back."

Malcolm smirked slightly at Adam's empty threat, Harry was well known for being particularly pedantic about his desk chair and accused someone of changing the settings anytime he was away for more than a day, though no one would dare to touch it. "So what did he actually say?" Malcolm queried moments later, when he realised that Adam had no intention of volunteering any information about the himself.

Adam twirled the chair round to face Malcolm. "He's such a bloody..." he started , before trailing off, searching for the right word in his mind.

Malcolm quirked his eyebrow at Adam's obvious frustration; when he'd stalked off to make the call his anger had been front and centre, and it seemed that even after the robust discussion they'd obviously just had, whatever Harry had said to him in explanation had done little to ease any tension. "Nice chap? Jolly good bloke?" he joked finishing off the end of Adam's sentence as he made his way further into the office, pulling the door closed behind him as he did so.

"Cold hearted bastard is slightly closer to what I was aiming for." Adam shot back quickly.

Malcolm moved to sit down in the chair opposite him. "That's hardly fair Adam. Harry may be many things, but he's not callous."

Adam sighed deeply before leaning back in the chair, tipping his head back and staring at the ceiling. "No I know he's not, it's just that he can just be so bloody obtuse at times."

"I wouldn't disagree with you there," Malcolm chuckled, "so come on then, what did he say?"

"Not much really," Adam scratched the stubble on his chin as he recounted the conversation with Harry in his head. "He just said that he didn't feel it was appropriate for him to tell me about Ros at the time as he didn't want me distracted while he was away, and the details surrounding her coming back were purely on a need to know basis until things were squared with Grosvenor Square."

Malcolm looked puzzled, "but surely he was aware that her just arriving out of the blue would..."

"Apparently she wasn't due to come back until Harry was back," Adam responded, "he wasn't aware until I told him, that Ros was actually already quite literally in flight."

"So how did Connie know?"

Adam shrugged, "how does Connie know anything," he asked rhetorically. "It seems at times that that women has got more assets and informants than the rest of Section D combined."

"But I thought the info came from the Home Office?" Malcolm questioned, "I could have sworn that..."

"Who knows," Adam tailed off despondently, realising that the working out of the whys and ways of Connie James would take significantly more time than he had at present. He suddenly realised with a flash of understanding, just how Harry felt when his Officers went off-piste while out in the field for one reason or another and kept him in the dark over their actions whilst doing so.

Sensing the frustration coming from the younger man, Malcolm decided to move to the real reason he'd sought Adam out after his phone call. "And how was Ruth?"

"Sorry?" Adam looked at the older man slightly perplexed at the conversation shift, his mind still partly on Connie and Field Officers running amok.

"Ruth," Malcolm stared at him for a moment in concern. "How is she? I take it you did ask after her when you were speaking with Harry?"

Adam groaned and once more covered his face with his hands. "I didn't even think to ask," he glanced over at the older man looking decidedly shamefaced. "Christ, and I accuse Harry of being the cold-hearted one."

* * *

"How did it go?" Ruth entered her bedroom wearing only a towel wrapped around her body after deciding to take a quick shower while Harry spoke with Adam to find the man in question sat on the side of her bed, dressed and pulling his socks on.

"Not well I'm afraid," Harry said with a sad smile up at her finishing up the job in hand and placing both feet on the ground. "I'm afraid I'm not flavour of the month where Adam's concerned at the moment."

Ruth sat down beside him making sure her towel was firmly secured. "Anything I can help with?"

Harry shook his head before leaning over and kissing the side of her forehead as a gesture of thanks. "I wish it was that easy." He hesitated for a moment, unsure of how she'd react to what he was about to tell her. "The call was about Ros."

"Ros." Ruth bit her bottom lip, of all the people they'd spoken about the previous night, Ros hadn't really come up in conversation, whether by design or accident she wasn't sure. "She's still with Section D then?"

"It's complicated." Harry said with a humourless laugh. "It all got rather messy a few months ago for various reasons, she'd come to be someone I trusted and confided in, despite the part she'd played in your exile, and she let me down. It also didn't help that personal feelings and relationships were also involved and.."

Ruth paled at his words as a wave of nausea overtook her suddenly. "You and Ros?" She managed to somehow get the words out, dreading the answer. Of all the people in all the world...

Harry let out a quick bark of laughter at her question, his reaction coming from the surprise he felt as she spoke. "Me and Ros? No" he shook his head firmly as he noticed the look on her face. He shuffled slightly more towards her on the bed, putting his arm around her waist and drawing her closer to him. "Ros and I have never been anything other than colleagues," he said quietly but firmly, putting her mind to rest. "It was Ros and Adam."

Ruth turned to look at him, shock written all over her face, "Ros and Adam? Really?"

He nodded, "it was complicated and I don't know much of what went on... but yes, I believe they were close."

Ruth let out a deep breath as she processed the information. "Adam and Ros," she started, "wow, I would never have imagined them together."

"They became closer after you left. There was a incident which nearly killed them both. I believe the experience drew them together."

"That makes sense, life changing incidents can make you re-evaluate everything you thought you knew." Ruth dropped her hand to his thigh, running her hand over the material of his trousers. "So what was Adam phoning about?"

Harry pursed his lips as he gauged exactly how much he could tell her. "Your death, believe it or not, isn't the only one we've had to fake in recent times."

"Ros?"

"Yes. I can't go into the details, but there was a situation and faking her death was the only solution."

Ruth smiled wryly, recognising quite how much she'd missed out on while in exile. "So exactly the same as me then?"

"Not quite," He ran his hand up and down her towel clad side trying not to get too distracted by the patterns her fingers were making on his thigh. "With Ros, it was only ever meant to be a short term solution to get the Americans off our backs and at the same time it gave us the opportunity to plant a person who officially no longer existed, into an operation in Russia. She was worked on a covert op that very few people even knew was happening."

Ruth turned on the bed, moving out of his loose embrace to face him. "so what happened?"

"Ros was due to be extracted from Russia sometime in the next couple of weeks, but somehow and without my knowledge, she's been extracted early and is due back," he glanced at his watch briefly, "sometime in the next half hour or so."

"And that's what the call was about."

Harry nodded, "Adam didn't have a clue, well he knew she wasn't dead and was in Russia but as far as he was concerned Ros coming back to London wasn't even on the horizon. He wasn't particularly happy to find out about it all from Connie, who really should have known better and kept her mouth closed."

Ruth looked slightly puzzled, "and how did she know, this Connie? I mean, I don't know her, but it's not often an Analyst gets this information first."

Harry shrugged in frustration. "In all honesty, I don't know," he took hold of her hand that had slipped off his thigh and was now lying between them. "But unfortunately what I do know, is that I'm going to have to go and sort all this mess out, hence why I got dressed rather than offering to scrub your back in the shower."

She smiled briefly at his teasing words, but moved quickly to the meaning behind them, "You're leaving already?" She asked, already resigned to the answer.

"I'm afraid so," Harry looked up at her and gave her a lopsided grin, "I'm sorry."

Ruth attempted to smile but it failed to make its way to her lips. "You'll call me when you get home though?"

"Call you?" He asked slightly bewildered. "I've got to go and make some phone calls, rattle a few cages and then I was hoping I could take you out for lunch somewhere and then you could show me the sights of Polis this afternoon."

"You're not leaving Cyprus then?"

Harry reached over and kissed her lips softly, "not just yet... and certainly not without working out what we're going to do about..." He stopped speaking, unsure of how to vocalise his thoughts and instead indicated between the two of them with his free hand.

She smiled in relief, "Lunch would be lovely then."

He grinned back at her, glad that she accepted his actions for what they were. "I also thought that you'd probably appreciate me having a shave as well," he teased, as he leant back in to kiss her again reasoning that any phone calls he needed to make could wait at least a few minutes more.

* * *

Connie looked across the Grid as Adam glanced at his watch again in frustration. As much as she'd enjoyed getting one over on him earlier, she now felt the frustration and helplessness come off him in waves as Ben Kaplan, Lucas North and multiple other Agents swarmed across the capital as the clock ticked every closer to 11.00am and the start of hundreds of services, across both London and the wider nation. She and Malcolm along with multiple other Analysts and Technical Specialists had been glued to their desks, tracking data, following up leads, but for every one lead they followed and discounted, another two sprang up in their place. She pushed her seat back and made her way over to him as he stared at the hands on the watch face again, as if willing them to slow down time. "Is everything alright Adam?" she asked quietly, not wanting anyone of the myriad of others on the Grid to hear their exchange.

"I'm fine, everything's fine," he bit out, "apart from the small matter of us chasing our tails around London in an attempt to stop a massive terrorist attack and I'm stuck in here, when I should be out there doing something."

She lay her hand on his arm in an attempt to calm him down before leading him slightly further away from the frenetic activity on the Grid. "You've got to keep it together Adam." She pointed at the people scurrying all over the open space in front of them. "Every person in here is depending on you."

Adam sighed heavily, pinching the bridge of his nose with his thumb and forefinger. "I don't know Harry does it," he confessed quietly.

She looked at him questioningly, "does what?"

"The waiting." He bit his lip, "the not knowing. At least when you're out there you feel like you have a modicum of control, but in here..."

"In here, you're the leader, the puppet master." Connie reminded him, a stern undertone to her voice. "Everyone in here is extraordinarily good at what they do, you just have to trust them to do their jobs and then make the decisions that have to be made."

Adam nodded as Connie squeezed his arm gently in an effort to soften the words she'd just spoken. "It sounds easy when you put it like that! Thanks Connie." The two of them made their way back over towards the centre of the Grid, "you've certainly changed your tune from earlier," he began, curious as to why she was suddenly the support he needed, when a few hours ago she'd been trying to pull the rug from beneath his feet.

Connie shrugged. "You're a good leader Adam... but you need to learn that..."

Whatever she was about to say was lost as two of the pods whirred open in unison and Adam caught his first glimpse of Ros in months as she walked out onto the Grid, Jo by her side. "Ros," he murmured, not knowing quite how he felt seeing her again like this.

"Looks like the blonds are back in town." Connie noted as the two women having both glanced over the activity on the Grid started to make their way towards where she and Adam stood.

"We have a confirmed lead!" Their progress was suddenly halted by Malcolm standing up suddenly and in the most commanding voice anyone had ever heard from him, he spoke clearly over the hubbub of the Grid. "Alpha Three has found the source and is minutes away now."

"Alpha Three?"

"Who's Alpha Three?" Ros' clear voice cut across the Grid as numerous people looked on in puzzlement at Malcolm's insistence on using code names at all times during an operation.

"Ben Kaplan," Malcolm answered quickly. "And at the moment, he's the only hope we've got of stopping Remembrance Sunday being forever associated with one of the largest Terrorist attacks to ever take place on UK soil.

* * *

Ruth waved as she spotted Harry at the entrance to the small family run restaurant she'd chosen for lunch. She'd managed to get them a table in the sun which even in mid November was comfortable to sit out in without getting chilly. She smiled as he waved back and watched as he made his way over towards her.

"Sorry I'm a few minutes late," he said with a grimace. "I was having a full and frank exchange of views with Dickie."

"Dickie?" She asked, as he leaned over and kissed her cheek warmly in greeting.

Harry took the seat opposite her as he clarified. "Richard Dolby."

"He's still the DG then?"

He nodded, taking a sip of the water that was already on the table. "He is. To be fair he's also the person that told me that you had been pardoned and who managed to arrange your new passport... but that still doesn't stop him from being a right pill..."

"Harry," Ruth warned in amusement as he warmed to his theme. The waiter arrived at their table and after reeling off a line of specials in Greek, he left with Harry looking completely nonplussed and Ruth grinning softly at his expression. "Sorry," she laughed gently, "I spoke to him in Greek when I arrived, he must have presumed you spoke the language as well."

Harry leaned over and grasped her hand gently, turning it over so his fingers could wrap around hers. "It's fine," he said with a warm smile, "you'll just have to choose for me."

She nodded, a faint touch of colour suddenly rising to her cheeks. "I will." She grinned over at him across the table, suddenly marvelling that they were finally here, finally having their second date. She'd discounted the previous night in her mind as a date as it had all happened so organically. This however, this was a meal out, a meal out together and...

"What are you thinking about?" Harry asked, seeing the sudden distant yet warm look in her eyes.

"The fact that you managed to have a shave." She answered but not exactly truthfully, though the smoothness of his skin when he'd kissed her moments ago hadn't gone unnoticed.

He grinned broadly, "I'm glad you approve..." he began, before he was interrupted by his phone ringing. "I'm so sorry Ruth," he said in frustration, glancing quickly at the screen as he pulled the phone from his pocket, "it's the Grid, I have to take it."

She nodded in understanding as he pushed his chair back and made his way outside where he could talk freely without disturbing any of the other diners. As she followed his back through the restaurant she glimpsed the time on the clock on the wall, it had just gone one o'clock in Polis she noted, quickly realising that that meant it had just gone eleven in London, the traditional start time of every remembrance service on the country. The eleventh hour, of the eleventh day, of the eleventh month she pondered silently to herself, while still keeping an eye on Harry. She smiled to herself as she thought of what she planned to show him that afternoon and what she hoped would happen that evening, before she realised that all was not well. His pallor had turned white and his hand had moved to cover his eyes as he sagged against a small wall for support. As she stood up and quickly made her way over to him to find out what had happened to cause such a reaction, she realised with suddenly clarity that this was what the future held for her if she went back to London with him. Interrupted meals, constant phone calls out of hours, sudden bombshells and a man who was so entwined with his job, that it was hard to see where Harry the man stopped and Harry the Section Head started...

TBC


	11. Chapter 11

Thanks once again to everyone who has taken to time to read this story and particularly those that have chosen to review, it really does mean a lot. Bit of a shorter one this time but it seemed like the right place to end the chapter.

xxxx

Ruth stood by, a little distance away, watching Harry carefully and not wanting to intrude; only knowing that whatever he was being told, it wasn't good news. He spoke infrequently, only uttering names briefly and usually with a questioning tone. Her view of his face was largely cut off by the hand that was shielding his eyes and which had hardly moved since he'd taken the call, when he'd almost immediately slumped against the low wall outside the restaurant finding it was the only thing around that would support him when his legs threatened for a moment to fail him. Finally around five minutes after he'd first answered the phone, he hung up and slowly raised his eyes to find her watching him a sad expression on her face. He stretched out his hand to her in a silent plea and she crossed the small gap to take it after only a brief pause. "How bad is it?" she asked quietly.

He looked up at her, his eyes over bright for a moment with unshed tears and took a deep breath before answering. "It was Ben, he was killed almost instantaneously from what I've been told," using his free hand he pinched his eyes together before ruining his hand down his face. "Christ, he's only been with us a matter of months."

"How did it happen?"she asked, squeezing his hand tightly in an attempt to give him some level of comfort. She hadn't known this Ben and Harry had only mentioned him in passing the night before, but still, in some strange way, she felt affected by his passing.

"We've been following..." He took a deep breath as his voice wavered slightly. "The past week there's been numerous threats to Remembrance Day services across London. Initially it was centred on the Cenotaph but widened out from there to take in the whole city. It appears that Ben managed to locate the bomb in the boot of a car, but with no time to disarm it, or evacuate the area he decided to drive it to a quieter area where there would be minimal impact. He managed to do this, but didn't have time to escape the explosion himself and..."

Ruth stepped closer to him pulling him into a tight embrace as his voice tailed off, understanding and knowing where the rest of the story was going as it brought up a cacophony of memories she thought she'd managed to bury deep within herself. They stood there entwined, oblivious to the world going on around them until Ruth felt him slowly start to breathe easier "Was anyone else killed or hurt?" she asked at length.

He shook his head as he pulled back slightly from her. "No, it appears that he was the only one caught up in the blast. They'll be a few broken windows and minor damage to buildings but other than that..."

"And how's everyone on the Grid?"

"That was Malcolm on the phone just then." Harry answered. "Adam is blaming himself and is struggling to hold himself together while Jo has apparently just disappeared..." He glanced at her morosely, "I wasn't even aware that she'd come back, well, not properly anyway."

Ruth looked at him, a bleak expression on her face, "So what happens now?' she questioned gently.

"I'm going to have to go back."

She cast her eyes down so he wouldn't see the pain reflected in them. "I know." She said quietly nodding almost indistinguishably, knowing in her heart and her mind that it was the only course of action open to him. She'd expected to hear this the second the call had come through and she'd seen his face, but she was still surprised how much it hurt her.

He reached up with his right hand to cup her face gently, "I'm so sorry Ruth, but I have to speak with his parents, Adam's in no state to do that at the moment... or to keep control of the Grid."

"I do understand Harry," she said sadly, "and I'm sorry too."

He bit his bottom lip as he pulled her into his arms again, taking what comfort he could from her embrace while wondering in his head if there was some supernatural deity solely focused on keeping him and Ruth apart.

* * *

"She's on the roof," Ros said briskly walking over to where Connie was stood in the middle of the Grid with a questioning look on her face.

"And how is she?" Connie peered at Ros over her glasses almost accusingly, "Jo has been through an awful lot recently."

"She'll live." The softer tone of Ros's voice undercut the harshness of her words. "I also passed Adam on the stairs on my way down, he was making his way up there as well. I think they both just need space and time to think."

"And how's he doing?"

Ros raised her eyebrows at the futility of the questions. "How do you think he's doing? One of his team has just died and despite him going against Adam's explicit orders to get out of the car, he blames himself."

"He said that?"

"Of course not, but I'm not completely without sensitivity and feeling. He's reacting in exactly the way I'd expect him to react given what he's been through over the last couple of years." Ros cast her eyes over the Grid quickly. "Where the hell is Harry? It's not like him not to be in the thick of things when the shit hits the fan."

Connie looked at her in surprise, given Ros had been back on the Grid for less than thirty minutes, in many ways it was if she'd never been away. "He's in Cyprus."

Ros looked at the older woman as if she'd just started speaking in Klingon. "Cyprus, what the hell is he doing in bloody Cyprus?" she exclaimed incredulously. "Harry's hardly the type of person who feels the need for long weekend breaks in the winter months just to feel the sun on his face."

She was about to answer and was relishing seeing the expression on Ros's face when they were interrupted suddenly. "I've just spoken with him," Malcolm said briefly, brandishing his phone as if they both required proof of his words. "I've said that we'll make the arrangements our end to get him back and that I'd call him as soon as we had the flight details."

Connie nodded, he mind suddenly switched back onto the job. "I'll get onto it straightaway. I presume he'll be getting a civilian flight back rather than flying back with the RAF?"

Malcolm rubbed his forehead lightly as he spoke. "I believe that'll be the quickest option, though check in with the Brass at the RAF base at Akrotiri. Even if there are no Hercules flights scheduled today, they'll probably be able to stump up a driver to get him to the airport at Paphos which I believe is the closest to Polis." Malcolm looked over at the tv screens on the wall which were looping the aftermath of the bomb blast, blanching slightly as he did so. "If all goes to plan we could have Harry back here by 6.00pm GMT tonight."

"Just in time to deliver the news to Ben's parents that their son was inexplicably caught up in the mains gas explosion in central London today." Connie raised both eyebrows slightly, "not quite the night of action Harry was presumably hoping for!"

Ros looked on in bemusement as Malcolm and Connie quickly made plans between themselves. "Is one of you planning on telling me what the hell is going on?" she interjected finally as Connie's last cryptic comment led to a thoroughly disapproving look from Malcolm. "Where's Harry?"

"He's in Cyprus with Ruth," Malcolm said quickly and concisely, hoping that the matter of fact way he spoke would stop Connie embellishing it into some kind of saga. "There were quite a few changes of circumstances while you were away."

Ros turned slightly pale at the news, "So I see. I thought she was supposed to be dead... never to darken the shores of the British Isles again?"

"Well..." Malcolm started before Connie quickly interjected.

"You more than anyone should know that no one is truly dead in this game until they are literally six feet under. And given her closeness to Harry it was thought.."

Ros smiled wryly, "She always was his rose-tinted blind spot," she uttered quietly, half to herself and half to Malcolm and Connie."

""Quite," Connie interjected with a hint of understanding. "There's also been other rumblings afoot, a disgraced former head of the JIC made a deal and..."

"A disgraced former head?" Two spots of colour stood out on Ros's cheeks suddenly and Malcolm noted to himself that she was as rattled as he'd ever seen her. "You don't mean Oliver Mace."

Connie nodded. "Of course," she started, "you'd know him relatively well?"

"Would you like me to get you a chair to sit on Ros?" Malcolm spoke to her kindly, noticing a slight wobble in her stance. Connie, despite her often prickly disposition was, as far as he was able to be certain, unaware of Ros's involvement in Ruth's exile and her initial collusion with Mace in order to get at Harry.

"I'm fine thanks Malcolm." She replied firmly after taking a couple of lungful's of the stuffy air on the Grid. "I haven't managed to have any food this morning," she explained quickly, "my blood sugar is obviously a little low." She smiled wanly at the two older members of the team, "On that note, I'm going to make myself a cup of tea while the two of you arrange the details around Harry's return." As they left in unison, quickly splitting the tasks between themselves, Ros made her way over to the kitchen hoping for a moments peace and solitude and the chance to get her head straight. Coming back onto the Grid after the events of Yalta was always going to be a big ask, but the difficulty had now doubled with the return of Mace and the potential comeback of her onetime nemesis.

* * *

"So..." Harry said quietly from the outside steps of the small hotel he'd just checked out of.

"So..." Ruth echoed his words, a touch of melancholy surrounding them both.

He moved to stand beside her. "You do know that I wouldn't be going back just now unless I really had to," he asked softly.

"Of course," she shuffled an inch or two closer to him and took both of his hands in hers. "It's who you are," she observed quietly, "you wouldn't be you if you didn't go back."

"I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing," Harry stated with a grimace. He swallowed deeply before asking the question he was terrified of hearing the answer to. "And what about you? What will you do now, will you come back?"

She smiled sadly, letting go of one of his hands to cup his face, sliding her fingers over his jaw and cheekbone. "Now's not the time to talk about this Harry... we both need to come to terms with what's happened before..."

"Sir Harry!" Whatever Ruth was about to say next was cut off by the loud shout from the car that had just pulled alongside them.

Harry pulled away slightly and nodded to the driver, "that's me," he confirmed. "Can you give me a moment?"

"Of course Sir," the driver busied himself with picking up Harry's small bag and placing it in the boot of the car before moving to stand a discreet distance away from them both.

"Sir Harry?" Ruth questioned lightly, a ghost of a smile on her face, "is there something you forgot to tell me?"

Harry coloured slightly, "I was awarded a Knighthood," he answered bashfully, "for the Service you know..."

"You deserve it," she said, leaning up to kiss him gently. "Now I'm not very good at goodbyes, so you better get going."

He stared down at her, his eyes warm as they washed over her. "Yes, you take care now."

"You too," she blinked a couple of times as tears started to form in her eyes.

He squeezed her hand tightly before leaning down to kiss her properly, "I'll call as soon as I know what's going on," he murmured against her lips when they parted, "this isn't going to be like our last goodbye Ruth."

She nodded against his chin before pulling his head down to hers for one last kiss. "I know." she said sadly, "It doesn't make it any easier though."

He nodded in recognition of her words, before disentangled himself from her arms gently and making his way over to the car. "We'll speak soon," he promised through the car's open window and then gave a short wave as the driver pulled away, keen to drop his passenger off at the airport and return to base as soon as possible for a little R&R.

Ruth covered her mouth with her hand, the tears that had threatened over the last few minutes, finally spilling their way out of her eyes and down her cheeks as she watched the car disappear in the distance. She stayed there for a few seconds before angrily brushing the tears out of her eyes, thankful that she wasn't working that day. She needed to find somewhere quiet to sit, somewhere where she wouldn't be disturbed and where she could try and put all her jumbled thoughts in order. Harry, London, Polis, Section D, Mace, The Grid and...

"Ruth!"

She jumped slightly as a familiar voice uttered her name. She looked up to see that she was being watched, and that her observer had a closed expression on his face that made her think he'd been watching her for quite sometime. "George," she replied quietly, closing her eyes briefly as she spoke, "what are you doing here?"

TBC


	12. Chapter 12

Thanks once again to everyone who is reading this story and particularly to those who have left reviews. Apologies that there wasn't an update last weekend. Technology beat me, or at least the internet connection dying on me beat me. Anyway, here's the next update, not much longer to go with this I think.

xxx

Harry closed his office door behind him, before pouring himself a very generous measure of single malt and wearily slumping into his chair. It had been a whirlwind of activity since he'd returned from Cyprus a day and a half earlier and apart from a few hours sleep last night, he'd hardly stopped. He'd walked back into a maelstrom on the Grid. Adam and Jo were both struggling to cope with Ben's death and Adam had disappeared completely prior to him arriving back, the rest of the team were frantically trying to manage the fallout from the explosion both with the Press and the Government and both Dickie and the Home Secretary seemed to have taken it personally that he'd been ' _sunning himself in Cyprus_ ' rather than manning the wall, when they'd been the ones encouraging him to go in the first place. Fortunately the one plus point had been the return of Ros; although they'd hardly exchanged two words since he'd got back, she had taken the Grid into hand and had become the de-facto Section Chief in Adam's absence, handing out tasks to everyone and making sure that everything was followed up on. All that had been left for him to do last night, was visit with Ben's parents and break the news of their son's premature death to them, doing a job that they had no idea about as they still believed him to be a freelance journalist. Their reaction had been just as he expected, it was not the first time Harry had had to do this, but each time he hoped it was the last. Anger, grief, bemusement, denial, pride in their son had all jockeyed for position whilst they had clung to each other and cried.

He sighed deeply before taking a large mouthful of his drink, relishing the burn as he swallowed. In all the furore he'd managed to send Ruth a quick message to let her know that he'd arrived back safely and had had a short reply in turn, but he hadn't yet managed to speak with her. He still couldn't quite believe the timing with which everything had happened, and he had no real way of knowing where Ruth's thinking was now that she'd been given both the time and opportunity to get her head around everything. He glanced at his watch quickly, it was just after eight thirty in London so therefore not too late to call Cyprus. He took out the notepaper with her number written neatly on it from his wallet and smoothed it out with his hand before lifting the phone and dialling. As he waited for the phone to connect he smiled slightly, imagining Ruth at the other end, getting ready for bed, or perhaps curled up reading a book that she just couldn't put down. The phone to his ear he glanced out of the office, most people had left for the day, he could see Ros at her desk talking animatedly on the phone while he knew Connie and Malcolm were still around somewhere, as for Adam... he frowned as the phone continued to ring out, he was after ten thirty in Cyprus so Ruth would surely be at home and even if she'd been fast asleep she'd have had time to answer the call after this many rings. His thoughts were disturbed by a quick rap of the knuckles against his door.

"Not interrupting anything am I?" Adam's head popped around the door as it slid open.

Harry hung up the phone in response to the question, "not at all," he answered, "I was just trying to call Ruth. Make sure she's okay," he shrugged helplessly, "I'll try again later."

"She's probably just out with a friend."

"That's what I'm afraid of," Harry muttered to himself quietly so that Adam couldn't hear him.

Adam took the seat opposite his boss, "How is she?" He questioned remorsefully. "I'm sorry, but that with all that's happened I completely forgot to ask earlier."

Harry waved away the apology with his hand. "Understandably you've had other things on your mind." He stood up and made his way over to the decanter behind him. "Drink?" He offered, before pouring without waiting for an answer.

"Thanks," Adam, smiled briefly before taking the glass and drinking a large drink, "I needed that."

"You and me both."

Silence stretched out between the two of them as they both stared into their drinks, each lost in their own thoughts, Adam focusing on the last few days, while Harry was worrying over the last few minutes and the whereabouts of Ruth at such a late hour. "So how was she?" Adam asked again, dragging Harry back from his musings.

"She's well," Harry said with a smile, "considering everything she's been through over the last eighteen months, she's coped remarkably well."

"And the two of you?" Adam looked closely at the older man, noticing the shadows below his eyes, "will she come back?"

Harry rubbed at his forehead with his hand, "In all honesty Adam, I don't know." He took a sip of his drink, "I hope so but I really don't know. We didn't get much chance to talk about it."

Adam raised his eyebrow, "didn't get much chance to talk," he said with a cheeky grin, the first smile to grace his face since the incidents of the day before. "So if you weren't talking then..."

Harry schooled his features before reacting to Adam's teasing, though he could feel a faint blush rising up his neck. "It was rather a shock for Ruth to suddenly see me out of the blue," he responded at length, loosening his tie and undoing the top few buttons of his shirt as he did so. "Strangely enough, our conversation rather focused on the events of the last year and a half, rather than Ruth coming to any snap judgements. She was still trying to get her head around all the implications when I had to leave earlier than we both wanted."

"So she may decide to stay then?" Adam asked in surprise.

Harry shrugged, "I hope not but that's for her to decide. If she does come back then she has to consider if she wants to come back here to work, where to live and probably a hundred other things that I haven't even thought of."

Adam nodded slowly before clearing his throat nervously. "About the whole where she could live aspect... I had thought that she could move in with..."

"Adam," Harry's voice rumbled warningly, "if and when Ruth and I do make any decisions about our relationship, then we'd discuss moving in together with each other rather than..."

"I'm glad to hear that the possibility of the two of you living together is still on the books!" Adam grinned widely, realising that Harry had inadvertently admitted that he and Ruth still had feelings for the other after seeing each other again, "but I wasn't actually referring to Ruth moving in with you."

Harry took another drink to mask his expression, "oh," he commented blandly.

"I was think she could move in with Jo." Adam spun round in his chair to look for Jo at her desk but there was no sign of her. "I spoke with her yesterday, all hypotheticals at this stage of course, but she's keen to get back to work properly, she needs to get back to work, it's the only way she's going to get through all of this, especially given that what's happened to Ben has knocked her right back. But when she gets back home she thinks too much, that's why she's ben doing all the running to block everything out. Having Ruth there, someone who understands what the job entails, someone to talk to would help her enormously."

"And does Ruth get a say in all this?" Harry asked.

Adam shrugged. "The two of them always got on well, and if she doesn't live with Jo then other than moving in with you where else is she going to go?"

"A flat or a house of her own," Harry answered quickly. "She may..."

"Harry," Adam continued as if his boss hadn't spoken. "Ruth's not going to be taking out a long-term rental at this stage, lets face it," he said bluntly. "I'd imagine that if she does come back, the main reason for that is sitting in front of me rather than any great love for the job and MI5, and though you may both want to give each other some space initially, if things go well then within a few months you'll both be wanting to..."

"Adam!" Harry sat up straight in his chair, "that enough. Any relationship between Ruth and I is just that, between the two of us. It's not something open for discussion around the office... do I make myself clear?"

Adam smiled slightly at the irate look on Harry's face. "Crystal."

"Good." Harry's face softened slightly, "and how are you? Sorry I didn't get any chance to speak with you yesterday when I returned. I didn't see you and Ros indicated that it would be best to leave you to your own devices for a while."

"I'm fine. Honestly," he added seeing he look of scepticism on Harry's face. "It hit me hard yesterday, mainly because I felt so powerless, but at the back of my mind, I think that I also thought that if you'd have been here, then there would have been a strong chance that that could have been me in Ben's place." He drained the remainder of the whiskey in his glass before continuing. "All I could think about was Wes, what would have happened to him if I died, because I know that had I been in Ben's position then I'd have ignored any orders I'd have been given as well."

Harry nodded in understanding as he stood up to reach the bottle to replenish both of their glasses. "It's tough," he said in a conversational manner, "watching from the side lines so to speak. You just have to have faith in your own judgement that you're making the right decisions..."

"And if you make the wrong one?"

"In this job you never quite know if you've made the right or wrong call." Harry grimaced and took another sip of his drink. "You just have to be able to live with the consequences of your actions and realise that sometimes... most of the time, there is no easy answer."

"But."

"But nothing, Adam." Harry looked across at the younger man seeing an expression on his face that he'd seen on his own in the mirror a hundred times before. "You weren't to blame for Ben's death. If he had listened to you and abandoned the car where it was, what would have happened?"

Adam slumped in his chair and rubbed his hand across his eyes, "there's a large probability that there would have been multiple deaths and numerous casualties."

"Exactly. I know it's difficult Adam, but you did exactly what I would have done in ordering Ben to abandon the car and we would have both been wrong. Ben was right to do what he did, as difficult as it is to accept his death, he made the right decision at the time."

The younger man nodded. "I know." He looked up and attempted a wan smile, "after it all happened here yesterday, I had to get away, that's why I wasn't around when you got back. I went to watch Wes play rugby and it brought it home to me. I don't want him to be an orphan Harry."

"What are you trying to say Adam?" Harry looked at him carefully as if judging what to say next, knowing there was a deeper meaning to Adam's words. "Don't make any rash decisions that you may come to regret, you're a fine Officer, one of the best."

Adam raised his glass in a mock salute to his boss, "I won't," he promised as he took another mouthful.

"About Ros," Harry began as he tried to steer the conversation in another direction. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you she was coming back. I had planned to of course, but it was all rather rushed, and even then I hadn't expected her here until after I returned from Cyprus. The last intel I had was that she was arriving Tuesday. Your call yesterday morning caught me completely by surprise."

"You're forgiven Adam said with a wry smile. "Sorry for going off the deep end like that, it was just such a shock, especially given what had happened between Ros and I, and Connie was so gleeful about telling me..."

"And you and Ros now? Will that cause any problems?"

Adam shook his head, "Ros and I, what we had was of its time. And even then the job didn't make it easy. To work together and be together and this job there has to be something more, I had it with Fiona, I think you and Ruth had it... sorry have it," he corrected himself before seeing the warning expression on Harry's face and pressing on. "Anyway, it's a good job she did get back when she did. I don't know how we'd have coped without her presence on the Grid yesterday."

Harry nodded in agreement slowly, his mind ticking things over. Something was suddenly niggling him but he couldn't think what had set it off. "Yes," he answered distractedly, "Ros can always be relied on in a crisis."

Adam looked across at his boss in concern. A shadow had suddenly come across his face and he was tapping the top of his empty glass distractedly with his finger. "Is everything all right?"

Harry pursed his lips deep in thought. "What exactly did Connie say to you about Ros?" He questioned.

Adam scratched at the stubble on his jawline as he thought. "Just what I've already told you. Why?"

"It may be nothing, but..." Harry screwed up his face as if trying to recall something that was just out of reach. "No forget about it. I'll talk to you about it properly tomorrow. I need to follow a couple of things up first."

"Are you sure?" Adam asked, concern lacing his words.

He nodded, "and please don't mention anything to anyone about this in the meantime."

Adam looked confused. "Mention what?"

"That's the spirit." Harry said with a small grin, though he realised Adam didn't really understand what he'd been talking about. Something had been gnawing away at him ever since Lucas had returned and although he couldn't put his finger on it, it was causing him concern. His gut feeling was trying to tell him something, what he didn't yet know, he just wished Ruth was around to confide in and more importantly, do a little discreet digging on his behalf.

Adam was about to answer when they were interrupted by the sound of activity around the pods which permeated through the not quite closed door of Harry's office. Standing up to see properly through the glass walls in the office, Adam's face broke out into a wide smile when he realised what the disturbance actually was.

'"What's going on?" Harry asked, seeing the grin on Adam's face.

"I think the reason for Ruth not answering your call earlier has just been explained." Adam answered, making his way from the window quickly to open the door fully and head out to the main part of the Grid.

Harry looked at him questioningly, a warm feeling starting to spread through him that had nothing to do with the whiskey he'd been drinking. "You mean..." He started, pushing his chair back as he went to join the rest of the team.

Adam turned and nodded in confirmation. "Ruth's back. Malcolm, Connie and Jo are with her now."

TBC


	13. Chapter 13

Well this is it, the final chapter. It ties up a few loose ends, but there's also a number left hanging in true Spooks fashion and I do hope it isn't too sentimental. Thanks once again to everyone who has read and reviewed this fic. Your support means an awful lot.

xxxx

Harry watched from his office door, a small smile playing around his lips as Adam strode over to Ruth and embraced her warmly. He didn't want to interrupt her reunion with her former colleagues and he also thought that Ruth wouldn't want the team witnessing their own personal reunion. Her unexpected arrival certainly answered the question of why she hadn't answered his call earlier, but in its wake brought a number of other questions to the forefront of his mind, mainly centring around why she was so suddenly here and was she planning on staying in London. He continued watching as Adam finally released her from a bear hug and whispered something in her ear, at his words she glanced over at Harry and for a moment, as their eyes met, the activity on the Grid seemed to stand still as they shared a warm and searching look. Harry indicated towards his office with his head and she nodded quickly in response, letting him know with a soft smile that she'd be in to see him as soon as she'd finishing greeting the others properly. As he withdrew to the sanctity of his office he noticed Jo grab hold of her hand and chat excitedly to her, it was the most animated he'd seen the young Spook in weeks and he hoped Ruth's return would be the catalyst Jo needed to start healing herself.

* * *

"So that's her then." Connie stated, a comment more than a question given that she and Ruth had been briefly introduced minutes before.

Ros nodded with a enigmatic smile on her face as the two of them watched the animated conversation taking place between Ruth, Adam and Jo. Malcolm had retreated back to his desk after initially welcoming her back with a warm hug and a kiss on her cheek. He was now watching from afar, not wanting to get in the way and preferring to wait to speak properly with Ruth when they could both sit down and have a proper chat. "That's her," she looked sideways at Connie, noticing the way she was sizing up the younger woman, "is she what you expected?"

"She's certainly different to his usual type," Connie answered noncommittally, glancing towards Harry's office where the man in question seemed to be pouring over some paperwork on his desk and ignoring the hubbub on the Grid.

"I wouldn't know," Ros replied equally noncommittedly. "He's only had eyes for her as long as I've known him... Not that that's been for that long. Plus aside from his personal feelings, he's probably happy to have someone, who by all accounts is one of the better Analyst's MI5 has had over the years, back on the team. Alongside yourself..." she added hastily, when she realised how her words could be taken by Connie, who was as much, if not more of a legend in the annals of MI5 Analysts as Ruth was.

"She's definitely coming back then is she?"

"Your guess is as good as mine." Ros shrugged her shoulders, "but that fact that she's here, now, would imply to me that a return is on the cards."

Connie nodded in response, her lips pursed slightly as if mulling something over in her mind. "And she's that good is she?" she asked at length.

Ros looked over at her, an amused expression on her face as Connie seemingly weighed up her competition. "From the little I saw of her before she went into exile, then yes, she is that good." She pushed away from the desk she'd been leaning on while talking to Connie, "I may not have particularly warmed to her as a person during the brief time we worked together, but as an Intelligence Analyst she's excellent." She cast one last smile at Connie who now appeared deep in thought. "She'd find the most obscure connections you could imagine and she was also pretty good at uncovering things that had been buried so deep people had actually forgotten about their own skeleton. I'm sure the two of you will get on like a house on fire!"

* * *

Harry looked up as he heard the soft knock on his office door and saw Ruth leaning against the door frame, a gentle smile on her face. "May I come in?"

He pushed his chair back in response, "Of course," he answered making his way over to her. He paused a couple of feet away from, "I didn't want to intrude earlier," he said quietly, "when you were saying hello to the others," he clarified as he spotted her puzzled look.

She nodded and then smiled at him, "I thought I'd surprise you."

"You did that," Harry answered gently taking another half step towards her, "I tried calling you earlier but there was no answer, now I know why."

Ruth looked at him, a half smile on her face as they continued to look at each other, "and are you happy with the surprise," she asked, a slight hint of trepidation coming through in her voice. "I just thought..."

Harry closed the couple of steps between them quickly and took her into his arms holding her in a tight embrace, "I'm delighted you're here," he whispered over the top of her head, "as surprises go, this is probably the best one I've ever had."

Ruth pulled back slightly so she could look at his face, "Good," she said, "I'm glad."

Harry looked down at her and despite being in his office he leaned down and kissed her softly, "I missed you," he admitted quietly before kissing her again lingeringly, "even though it's only been a couple of days I missed you."

"Me too," Ruth replied with a grin.

They stared into each others eyes for a few moments before Harry came to his senses; despite the fact that they were in a blind spot in his office and wouldn't be visible to anyone on the Grid, he was also aware that there would be more than one set of eyes glued to the windows in the hope of seeing something between him and Ruth and he didn't want that pressure being put on her that early in her return to London. "We should probably sit down," he commented eventually nodding towards the sofas in his office, "if they don't see us soon, gossip is bound to start."

Ruth nodded and squeezed his arm as she stepped out of his embrace and took a seat. "I'm sure it has already," she answered with a raised eyebrow.

"You're probably right." he conceded as he took a seat on the other sofa sitting at a right angle to her. This gave him both a view of her and of the Grid and as he sat, he noticed numerous sets of eyes suddenly diverting from where they had been focused on the windows he was now looking through. "So what..." He tailed off, not quite knowing how to bring up the question he was dying to ask.

"Made me come back so soon?" Ruth finished off for him.

"Yes," he nodded. "Last time we saw each other, I know you had some questions, some concerns. I was planning on flying back out to Cyprus this weekend to see you again," he shrugged his shoulders, "I'd hoped we could have had the conversation that we were going to have Sunday afternoon before everything turned to custard."

"It was George." Ruth smiled, before clarifying, "who persuaded me to come back so soon... though I would have come back to London regardless. I realised that almost as soon as you'd left."

Harry looked stupefied for a moment, "George," he finally managed to get out, "the doctor? What did he say?"

"He saw us saying goodbye." Ruth started.

"When? On Sunday?"

She nodded. "We ended up going for a drink and I told him what had happened." She cleared her throat and clarified her statement quickly as she saw Harry's suddenly aghast face." Well I told him a truncated version anyway, with the spying and exile bits replaced with a slightly more downbeat version."

"And he believed you?"

"Yes," Ruth answered simply, "why wouldn't he? He's a good and honest man." She started to play with a loose thread on the hem of her top. "He already knew that you were someone from my past, he worked that out from seeing us in the hospital grounds on Saturday."

Harry stood up and made his way over to his whisky decanter, suddenly feeling the need for fortification while this conversation was taking place. He'd known the moment he'd set eyes on the Cypriot Doctor that he'd cared for Ruth. "So what did he say?" He asked, pouring them both out a healthy measure.

Ruth grinned to herself recognising Harry's actions for what it was. "He asked me if I still loved you and told me that if I did that I was a fool to hang around in Polis any longer than I had to."

Harry had just taken a mouthful of his drink and was making his way back to her when she answered the question. Her answer made him stop in his tracks and the shock of her words made the whisky go down the wrong way. "And what did you say to that?" He finally croaked after a mild coughing fit had rendered him speechless.

"I'm here aren't I." She shrugged. "I said the other day I just needed a little time to get my head around things. George made me realise that I perhaps didn't need the time to think as much as I thought I did."

Harry nodded dumbly but whatever he was about to say next was lost as the door slid open and Jo popped her head through. "Sorry to interrupt," she glanced between the two of them where they were sat on the two sofas, "but Ruth, I'm heading off home now, so if you want a lift back?"

Ruth glanced over at the younger woman before quickly explaining to Harry. "Jo has very kindly offered me her spare room while I get myself settled back in and I've taken her up on her offer."

Harry nodded, remembering earlier Adam's comments around this subject. "Well... that's good." He said eventually.

Ruth looked over him and smiled before turning to face Jo. "I might leave moving in until tomorrow though Jo if that's okay with you. I'll stay at Harry's tonight if he's amenable to that."

In the silence that followed it was hard to say who looked more shocked, both Jo and Harry were rendered temporarily speechless but it was Jo who came to her senses first."That's fine," she exclaimed with a broad grin. "We'll catch up tomorrow. Have a good night both of you." She waved briefly and then disappeared quickly as she realised how her words could be misconstrued.

Neither Harry or Ruth noticed, "That is alright with you I hope?" Ruth asked gently when he still didn't say anything. "I just presumed..."

He leaned over and took hold of her hand entwining it with his own. "It's more than fine," he answered, his voice rough with emotion. "I just didn't think you'd want the others on the team to be aware of our personal relationship, or even if you'd want one with me if you decide to come back to work here."

"I think that particular horse has well and truly bolted," Ruth answered calmly, squeezing his hand. "They all read the postcard I sent you, they know why I went into exile in the first place and they know that you flew out to Cyprus to find me." She touched his cheek with her free hand, "I'd be slightly worried with their spying skills if they didn't realise how close we were." She took a deep breath before continuing. "When I left, the thing I regretted most was not giving you a chance, not giving us a chance and now that I'm back, that's something I can fix... if you want the same thing of course?" she added slightly nervously.

Harry raised both his eyebrows at her, "well that's a daft question if ever I've heard one." He replied with a grin, his eyes saying far more to her than his words did. "And with work... what's your thinking there?" He let go of her hand to take another mouthful of his drink. "Are you wanting to be recommissioned as an MI5 Officer?"

Ruth nodded, "Yes... well, I think so." She looked over at him, "do you think we'll be able to do it? Work together and have a personal life together as well?"

Harry looked over the Grid before answering, spotting his blond section chief perched on a desk and talking animatedly to Lucas. "Adam and Fiona did," he answered, "there's no reason why we can't too."

"Adam wasn't Fiona's boss?"

"In every practical sense he was." Harry replied, "if it makes it any easier for you I could set up the line of reporting differently so that you report into Adam rather than directly to me?"

"Maybe we should just play it by ear," Ruth answered noncommittedly before she leaned over and took a small sip of her whisky while weighing something up in her mind. "Oliver Mace." She began hesitantly.

Harry sighed heavily, "I'm sorry Ruth, there's really nothing that can be done about him." He moved slightly closer to her and making sure that they couldn't be seen by people still lingering on the Grid, he placed his hand on her knee in an attempt to comfort her. "If there was anyway at all then..."

"What about..." Ruth started before she tailed off, not quite knowing how to voice something that she'd been playing over and over in her mind ever since Harry had mentioned on that night in Cyprus that Mace was back in the fold.

"What about what?" Harry asked encouragingly, knowing that Ruth rarely made suggestions without having put a great deal of thought behind it.

"It's just something I've been thinking about," she began. "Men like Mace rarely just have one skeleton in the cupboard. What if, rather than me just jumping back into Counter Intelligence work for Section D, I spend some time instead working from a secure connection and do some in-depth digging." She shrugged her shoulders lightly, "see if we can't get him to disappear for good this time."

Harry sat back on the sofa tapping his lips with his forefinger while he thought over her suggestion. It was very close to one he had of his own, but he hadn't intended bringing that up tonight, what with it being Ruth's first night back. He glanced around covertly before moving closer to her and lowering his voice. "I think it's a strong idea, but you won't be able to do it from here."

"Then where?"

"I've already got a secure connection at home. Malcolm checks it everyday for breaches so if you wouldn't mind working from my office there then..."

Ruth looked at him slightly puzzled, "Why couldn't I work from here? Surely the network here is just as secure?"

Harry nodded, "it is." He glanced outside, no one was now taking any notice of the two of them sat there. He moved his mouth closer to Ruth's ear and whispered, "I'd like to expand your remit if you'd be open to that? Get you to look very quietly into another couple of people as well."

"Of course," Ruth replied quietly, "but why all the secrecy and why the whispering?"

"Because it's a very delicate matter, and it involves people you've met here tonight."

Ruth's eyebrows shot up in surprise as she looked at him aghast. "You think..." She whispered loudly back to him.

"It's just a gut feeling," he replied quietly, "we'll talk more when we're alone and I'm certain there's no hidden ears listening in.

She nodded in understanding, suddenly feeling a wave of tiredness overcome her as both the flight back to the UK took its toll and the realities of a life back in the Security Services hit home. "Another time." she said, squeezing his hand in understanding.

He smiled at her, suddenly wanting nothing more than to forget about his worries over Connie and Lucas and instead focus on the future that lay in front of him. Something that he thought had passed him by when the barge had taken her away from him and into exile nearly twenty months earlier. He stood up and held out his hand to her, "can I take you home and show you where you'll be sleeping tonight?" He asked in a teasing tone.

"Sleeping?" She shot back quickly with a wide grin, her tiredness receding as quickly as it had struck her a few moments earlier. "I hope you're not planning on much of that tonight Sir Harry."

His answering grin matched her own as he pulled her up to stand next to him. "we best get moving then."

She looked at him closely for a moment, noticing the unbuttoned collar, the loose tie, the warmth of his eyes as he gazed down at her. "Take me home Harry." she asked softly.

He looked down at her and couldn't resist kissing her softly before he answered. "Ruth, you're already home."

THE END


End file.
